Unlike Most
by The Man with a Top Hat
Summary: The Cainhurst Vilebloods, almost hunted to extinction by the Executioners. Their Queen, with but one young Vileblood to bring her blood, has gained the attention of a great one. On the other end, an old executioner simply wishes to honor the Martyr, and receives an invitation to the castle. Soon, two weary souls will be sent to a very unfamiliar place, with very similar foes.
1. The Introduction

**I'M BACK, and I believe that this is much better than it was before. I'm happy to announce that I will be trying once again to do this, and getting to the RWBY part will happen much faster than was originally planned. Anyways, all see you at the bottom of this page!**

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The Introduction

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Navlaan stood by the giant grave, hands on his knees to try and catch his breath. His great hammer lay to his right, handle sticking in the air, his blunderbuss hanging on his back. He hadn't expected to face those…things. It had been bad enough to face three at once, but when they all sprouted snakes from their chests, he really wanted to start running. Then, when two of them lay dead, he hadn't expected the last to crouch down and whistle, and he certainly didn't expect giant snakes to pop out of the ground.

With the rush of echoes that entered his veins, he grabbed one of his two remaining blood vials and stuck it in his leg. As the numbing feeling of the drug like substance spread through him, he sighed and rubbed a hand through his balding set of grey hair.

' _How the hell did I beat that?_ ' He questioned himself. He thought for sure that last snake would rip his head from his body. He shook his head, ' _No need to question my insane luck_ '. He stood straight, adjusted his glasses, and grabbed his hammer. ' _I should head back to the dream_ ' He thought, a small smile forming on his face, ' _I'm sure the Doll misses me, almost as much as I miss her, and her tea_ '. With that thought, he lit the lantern that had appeared out of nowhere, and willed himself back to the dream.

***Line Break***

Upon his return, Navlaan looked around, only to see the doll wasn't in her usual place. Looking around, he saw her her praying at a grave by the workshop. He walked up to greet her, but stopped short. She was saying something, almost like a prayer.

"Oh Flora, of the moon, of the dream. Oh little ones, Oh fleeting will of the ancients... Let the hunter be safe, let him find comfort. And let this dream, his captor...foretell a pleasant awakening...be, one day, a fond, distant memory…"

Was she…talking about him? She had to be, there was no other hunter in the dream that he was aware of. Warmth filled his chest as he listened, she really did want him to succeed. But what caught him off guard was the end. He frowned a bit. He didn't know how the doll was alive, or why Gehrman was trapped here, but he certainly didn't want to leave them. He had known her and Gehrman for a very short amount of time, but they both felt like good friends, maybe even family, to him. With that thought on his mind, he walked up and greeted her.

"Hello Doll."

She looked up, surprised at first. But then a small smile formed on her lips. "Ahh, Welcome home, Navlaan… Apologies, I was simply rest..!" He cut her off as he enveloped her in a hug. She was so polite and quiet, and always apologizing for small things.

She seemed very shocked by this action, stiff even as he let her go. After several seconds, he spoke, "I heard what you said, and I thank you for praying for my safety. But I am a very old man, I'm afraid. I'm not as I used to be, because of you, but my body is still frailer than most." He then sent her a playful glare, reached up, and put a hand on her shoulder. "And another thing, I'm not just going to up and leave or forget you. You are very important to me." He let go and turned toward the door of the workshop "Both of you are."

Gehrman appeared in the doorway, smiling. "While I'm flattered, and rest assured I am, I have some things to discuss with you Navlaan." He motioned to the back of the workshop, and started to wheel himself there.

Navlaan turned to the Doll, who still look out of sorts. "After I'm done, I'll have to tell you about the latest creature, or rather creatures, I've just slayed. It's a rather intense story, so you had better warm the kettle." A look of excitement crossed her face, before she nodded. She waved them goodbye, and walked inside.

***Line Break***

Navlaan arrived to see Gehrman staring quietly at the stump full of messengers. They were waving their arms at him, ducking in and back out of the stump with different items adorning their heads. They seemed to be trying to amuse him, and they were succeeding. Once they saw Navlaan approaching, however, they quickly ducked back into the stump, only to appear again with his preferred headset. The top hat.

"I still don't see why you insist on them wearing those things, Navlaan. You know they enjoy choosing for themselves." Gehrman spoke with amusement in his voice. He turned to look at Navlaan, a smirk on his face.

Navlaan sent him a fake glare, and responded, "I think it makes them look professional. They are called messengers, they should at least look slightly competent while doing their job. When they're not helping me, they can wear what they wish."

"You know that's just a name, that not really their job. But enough about messengers, I have something of yours and I think you will find it rather intriguing." At this, Gehrman handed Navlaan an old looking letter. After several seconds of looking at the front, he flipped it around and gasped.

"The Cainhurst symbol…How...How did you find this?!" He looked at Gehrman with awe and excitement.

"It appeared on the Yharnam headstone. I don't know why, but I do know it's addressed to you. I think we both know what this means for you."

"Master Logarius…" He had a tear in his eye. "I must…No, it can wait. For now, we must celebrate!"

***Line Break***

Queen Annalise sat on her throne, looking at her knight with a neutral expression. They were surrounded by statues of every shape and size, so realistic you might think they were people turned to stone. But that is debatable, and a discussion for another time. The knight, on one knee and arm extended, had been there for a short time compared to others. But in that time they had done well, very well indeed.

"Thou hast served us well. We are grateful for thy service, but thy time here is almost complete. Soon, you will face your greatest challenge. I have summoned one of the few Executioners left in the land. They will arrive here, put their former master to rest, and enter this throne room."

The knight stayed as they were, bowing deeply, and spoke to the floor. "I will defeat them swiftly, and I will bring honor to you, my Lady."

The Queen almost smirked at the knights confidence. "That will not be necessary. When he comes here, you will know what your challenge is. For now, we must prepare. Leave, and bring me one _final_ dreg of blood. That is all I require."

The knight bowed deeper. Than they stood swiftly and walked toward one of the walls of the room. They pulled down a candlestick on the wall and it swung aside. With a quick look back at the Queen, they turned and walked out of the room. The wall swung behind them and closed quietly. The Queen slowly sunk low into her throne. She knew that this day would come, and she could only hope that her knight was as ready as they seemed. This task would indeed be a challenge, but not for the reason her knight might expect.

' _This will be far harder than it should be._ '

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 **So that was a thing. I feel as if this is a much better, less convoluted story compared to the last. I'd like to thank those that reviewed this story before, it certainly helped in this story's development. While this may not be the best, it is certainly better than before.**

 **Anyway, please Review if you see some problems, or you like some things I've done.**

 **(Edit: Just made the flow smoother, and fix a few errors.)**


	2. The Castle

**And here is update number two! I'm not sure how long it will be from the first update, but here we go.**

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The Castle

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"There were three, and all were dressed in a black, cloak-like garb. The first was easily the fastest and most irritating. It had only a sword and would attack swiftly, but it was predictable and easily countered. The second, with both a sword and a candlestick, was sneaky in its attacks and seemed to love blowing flames at me with said candlestick. The third was some sort of arcane user. It had a mace instead of a sword, and held fire in its hands. It mainly used balls of fire and snakes to try and hit me."

This was but the beginning of the tale told by Navlaan to the Doll, in the workshop. With the Doll on the storage coffin, and Navlaan standing by one of the many piles of books. The Doll had made some of her delicious tea, and while she couldn't enjoy it she was told by those who had tasted it, that it was the best they'd ever had.

While he told his story, the Doll sat eagerly. She knew that he may exaggerate, but she loved them anyway. They were fascinating, and he made the most interesting facial expressions while telling them. Also, she knew it made him happy that someone was willing to listen, not out of courtesy, but out of genuine excitement for his tales.

"And as the twisted creature whistled for one final time, I ran up and slammed my hammer down on it. It fell, and I was going to celebrate. I then remembered that there was still a giant snake out for my blood. I dodged behind the giant tombstone and with a loud _thwack_ , the beast ran straight into it. The stone nearly flew out of the ground, and I almost felt bad for the snake." Navlaan chuckled "Of course, I didn't, but the sound it made when it hit…" He shuddered. "But after that there was nothing but bones and corpses left on the ground, and that was the end of what I like to call The Shadows of Yharnam."

The Doll clapped with the end of the tale, and Navlaan stood with a large grin on his face. "Thank you, thank you." He said with a bow.

"That was one of the most exciting yet, Navlaan!"

"Yes, I think it was, and again I thank you for listening." His grin faltered slightly, before it back at full force "But for now, I must leave you. I have to get to Hemwick."

The Doll was disappointed, but didn't let it show. Instead, she stood and grabbed Navlaan's hand. She then went to one knee, and with the echoes he had gathered, she gave him a great increase in endurance and strength while he looked at her in surprise. When she was done, she stood before him, and he realized just how tall the Doll truly was in that moment.

She finally broke the silence that pervaded the shop. "Please, be safe. You are indeed very important to me, the little ones, and, though he will not admit it out loud, to Gehrman as well."

Navlaan smiled, feeling warmth spread through his chest again. He slowly opened his arms and embraced her again, and again she flinched. But this time, after a few moments, she hugged him back. They stayed that way for several moments in silence, until…

"Oh how touching, you two almost look like father and daughter. That is, if she weren't a head taller than you."

They both let go of each other at a mild pace, and turned to Gehrman, who was grinning like a madman. Navlaan then turned back to the Doll, who looked at him back.

"Are you thinking what I'm-" " _Yes._ "

With that, they both turned back to Gehrman. The Doll's expression calm, Navlaan's was anything but, a large smirk spread on his lips. Gehrman's smile slowly faded as he looked between them both. When he spoke, he there was slight fear in his voice, "Now, now, heh heh. Let's not do anything rash-" And with that, they both rushed him, Navlaan with an arm around his shoulders, the Doll with a slightly awkward grip on his midsection. Gehrman gave one loud shout,

" _ **I AM NOT THE HUGGING TYPE!**_ "

and was silent.

***Line break***

Navlaan stood over a demonic looking dog. A coach and horses had appeared in the distance, and he could tell from its decrepit design that it was what was taking him to the castle. As it stopped in front of him, he noticed there was no coach driver. The door swung outward, and with a single look around, he climbed inside. The interior was as bad as the exterior, but, after removing his weapon from his back, he sat down. The door closed after him, and he jolted as the coach pulled itself around.

All of the windows in the coach were blocked out, cloth covering all of them. However, from the little light that was seeping through, he could tell they were moving much faster than it felt. After what felt like only an hour, the coach slowed to a stop. As the door swung open, he picked himself up and stepped into the dry and frigid air.

And there stood Forsaken Castle Cainhurst, in all its glory. As terrifying as he thought it would be.

A large grin broke out on his face. He had arrived.

***Line Break***

They saw as he exited the coach, fully aware of what he was. He was one of them, one of the ones who had desecrated the castle and killed everyone. Or so they thought. Most of the servants had lived, simply because they could not fight as well as knights. The Queen lived as well, but only because she could not die.

They had been a servant at the time, and when the executioners came, they hid. There were many secrets in the castle, and hidden passages were common. After the massacre, they had opened their passage, only to appear in the Queen's throne room. There was only one way out of the room now, and the Queen was trapped completely, unable to move past the limits of the throne. That man, Logarius, was guarding the main entrance. He had cast some sort of arcane spell on himself, and he became almost lifeless, with basic functions and a purpose to keep the Queen in, or others out.

They shook their head, for now was not the time, and saw as the man grinned to himself. They sneered at him. He wouldn't last long, even without their interference. They would obey their Queen, she would know if they did otherwise, and they didn't feel like attacking anyway. They had already gathered the final dreg, and had simply been waiting for the man to arrive. With a glance toward him, they adjusted their weapon, a weapon of sacrifice to gain power, and left for the Queen.

***Line break***

As he entered the castle courtyard, he instantly saw the lantern. He swiftly lit it, and looked around. The courtyard was large, with several statues and frozen trees around. A small building lay to his right, and what looked like the main entrance to his left. He decided to explore later, as he wanted to get inside as quickly as possible. His clothing, standard for executioners, kept him fairly warm. But that warmth wouldn't last long. He walked forward a few steps, but stopped short.

' _What in the hell are those!_ '

He started reeling back, not wanting to be spotted by the beastly creatures. He couldn't think of any animal that resembled them in nature. He saw as one of their tongues lashed out. Latching onto a nearby corpse, the thing began to suck what little fluid it could from it's dead victim. Gagging, he looked around to see that there were many of them, but they all seemed entirely focused on the bodies that littered the yard.

After a moment, he slowly began to walk toward the door, praying that he would go unnoticed. He continued to walk until he was at the door, and was beginning to wonder how to open it when a loud shriek erupted from behind him. He turned to see one of the things looking straight at him, and as it began skittering toward him the others turned as well. Then, with a grinding noise, he turned back and saw the door begin to open.

With a noise of irritation, he turned and faced the first beast, hoping to hold them off long enough for the door to open. He pointed his blunderbuss in their general direction and fired, slowing some of them down, but only for seconds. With a second shot and the realization that it was futile, he quickly pushed his sword into the head of his hammer, and effortlessly swung it around to face his enemy.

As the first approached, Navlaan quickly smashed the hammer down on its head, disorientating it enough for a second strike, this one to smash its midsection. It could do nothing as the hammer impacted its extruding stomach, and it blew open, spreading blood everywhere. Some of the other creatures stopped to feed on the blood it had spilled, instead of chasing him. It was disgusting, but it gave him an idea. He quickly grabbed a bottle from his bag, and threw it in front of him. The metallic scent of blood quickly filled the air, and the creatures looked around for the smell, before pouncing toward the remains of the bottle.

All but one, that is. A large beast with a stomach bulge much bigger than the others, ignored the bottle in favor for chasing himself.

He brought the hammer down on it, hoping for a quick kill, but it shrugged it off. As he pulled his sword from the hammers base to attack faster, the creature slashed at him, scratching his chest and stunning him. He was shocked for several seconds, before he shook it off and slashed back with all his might.

Blood splattered as the thing's head was cleaved in two, and as it died the others left the smell behind in favor for the blood of their kin. As they started to lap up the blood from the snow, the door finally opened enough for him to enter. He quickly rushed in, and as he did the door slammed behind him.

He sighed.

There was no going back that way.

***Line break***

Queen Annalise raised slightly in her seat as the knight entered the room. They could sense the dreg in their bag. They waited for them to kneel before her before addressing them.

"Thou hast returned. Did you catch a glimpse of our guest?"

Instead of answering, they nodded their head.

"Ah, and has thou guessed as to what thy challenge will be?"

This time, a shake.

"You will know in time. For now, the dreg."

They took the the blood from their bag and offered it to her. But instead of crushing it she set it aside. She then looked back at the knight and for once, actually smiled.

"You have done all that we asked. In time, you will see that what you have done shall set you on the greatest path. Until he arrives, remain here. There is nothing you need do till then."

With a final nod, and a 'yes, my lady', they stood themselves up, and walk over to one of the closest statues. They leaned against it, crossed their arms…

And waited.

***Line break***

 **Holy crap, that was fun to write. That is currently the biggest thing I've ever written, not counting papers for school. Anyway, I'm glad that this story is fairly liked. I'm sorry if the character's seem a little OOC, I just feel like they should be a bit closer then it feels in the game.**

 **We will soon meet our main antagonist, and we will be entering the RWBY universe shortly.**

 **So if you see any errors, feel free to tell me. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!**

 **(Edit: Just made things smoother, and I changed a bit of what the Queen said.)**


	3. The Invader and The Martyr

**Well, hello there, everyone!**

 **I'm fairly certain that I'm doing well, or at least I haven't been told otherwise. Anyway, we get to meet several special people in this chapter, if you didn't already get it from the title.**

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The Invader and The Martyr

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Navlaan looked around the hall, breathing heavily. Unlike the outside, the castle's interior was warm, and almost comforting. There were several pillars that held up the ceiling, and thousands of candles around the room. There was a set of stairs that lead up, and split off to balconies on the left and right sides of the room. A person was kneeling on the floor near the staircase, seeming to not notice him.

As his gaze swept around the entrance, he narrowed his eyes in confusion. Lights, warmth, even a person, a servant by the looks...something wasn't right here. With several cautious steps he made his way toward the stairs. He looked down to the servant and with a slight tilt of the head, he could see that the person, a man, was looking up at him. Then, with a very raspy voice, he spoke.

"Welcome... to Cainhurst Castle...Executioner..."

Navlaan looked at him in slight shock. After several moments of stunned silence, he spoke. "Hello...sir. Tell me, why are you here? This place was ransacked years ago. "

The man chuckled, a dry, rattling sound, like he hadn't laughed for years. He probably hadn't. As the sound faded in the back of his throat, he spoke again.

"You...are our guest...yes? Even if you are... what you are. Not everyone...was killed...during the massacre. Some fought...bravely...but they were fools, and the rest of us hid. As for why the I am here now... Well someone must keep...the castle clean. Keep the beasts out." As he spoke, his voice seemed to pause less, and got slightly clearer. "My lady, the Queen...has invited you to her...abode. You wish to honor...the Martyr...and the Queen has need of you."

"The Queen, of Cainhurst Castle, has need of me?" Navlaan scowled, "And if I refuse to cooperate?"

The man looked at him with distaste. "Then her majesty's knight will kill you. I will act as if...you mean no disrespect in saying that. But be forewarned...this castle has many dangers for one like yourself. Go up the stairs...and remember I am the only thing here that will...treat you kindly. Most of us will not bother with you, but some of the more...enthusiastic will attack. There are also the bound ones you must deal with. They were removed from this hall...but they are everywhere throughout the rest of the castle. They will test you, and beyond them is your Martyr."

And with that the man turn back to the floor, continuing to scrub as he had before.

In the several moments of silence that followed, Navlaan waited, thinking the man would continue to speak. When he didn't, Navlaan looked up the stairs in front of him. With a sigh he pulled his blunderbuss from his back and continued, more cautious than ever. He went up the first flight, and at the intersection he turned to ask which way to go.

But the man was gone, disappeared without a trace. Navlaan looked around, but found no sign of the man. Seconds later, he turned back and decided that left was his best option. With a quick climb, and a look around, he went through doorway into what looked like a dining area, but was filled with statues, big and small, and strange containers were on the tables. He was about half way through the room when the lights went dim. Several womanly screeches erupted around him, and suddenly he was surrounded by ghostly apparitions. He quickly jumped away, and slashed at the first one that approached him. It faltered, and with two more swings it evaporated into dust.

Knowing he could kill them swiftly eased his racing heart, and as they slowly approached he struck them down. ' _One, two, three, next_.' They fell easily, and he knew that as long as they were dealt with separately, they would continue to fall easily. When there weren't any left, he exited the room through a small archway opposite of where he entered. It led to a balcony. He went over to the edge and looked out over a portion of the castle. It was rather relaxing, but it was also cold. He turned to another archway and climbed up another set of stairs.

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After dealing with several gargoyle's, and a servant who was very proficient with a rapier, he entered into an enormous room, a library of sorts, seemingly filled with thousands of books. He looked to his left to see some sort of elevator. He ignored it in favor of the library. ' _There have to be thousands of books here, thousands of stories, and almost no one to read them!'_ He thought, excitement filling his eyes. But as he looked closer, he saw many more of the ghostly woman, almost completely transparent, but still barely visible. ' _I'll have to come back later.'_ He was going to continue forward, but felt something hit his arm. He looked down to see a small dart had entered his skin through his gloves. He looked back up to see another servant with some sort of blowgun in their hands, all the way across the room.

More screeching filled his ears as suddenly the ghosts all rushed him at a frightening pace. Unlike their calmer counterparts, these ghosts seemed almost frantic to reach him, and it was only through quick thinking that he dodged out of their way. ' _I can't face these things now! There are too many!'_ He quickly rushed up a small rolling staircase to his right and jumped over the ghosts. He rolled into the landing and rushed over to the servant. They were prepping another shot when he reached them, and with a single slash they were dead. He than quickly climbed up the stairs to the upper floor of the library, thankful that the ghosts did not follow.

' _I'm not sure what will kill me first, the ghosts, servants, gargoyles, or a heart attack.'_ He thought to himself, leaning against a set of shelves. After he caught his breath, he looked back up to see even more books, with several servants walking around and scrubbing floors. He looked around, but saw no other exit besides a small window at the end of the room. With a sigh, he stood back up and picked his way through the walkways. The Majority of the servants left him alone, but one did start blowing darts at him. He dodged out of the way and swiftly used his hammer to bring them down. They were agile, but they were also very weak.

With the servant taken care of, he walked over to the window and peaked his head out. There was a small ledge to walk on, but not much else. He took an experimental step onto the ledge, and when he determined that it was safe, stepped fully onto the ledge. With a look over the edge, he saw there were more ledges to the left. He slowly shuffled to the left, and after a second to prepare to himself before going over the edge. But as he was about to drop, he suddenly felt very cold, and he couldn't keep himself from shuddering. It threw him off balance...

And he fell.

When he hit the balcony below him, back first, he felt an intense pain in the back of his skull, and he blacked out.

***Line Break***

When he came to, he was still on the balcony , and as he sat up his body groaned in protest. With a low moan, he clutched the back of his head and looked around. There was nothing there, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. He grabbed a blood vial from his sash, and injected himself with it. Most of the pain he felt disappeared, but the feeling remained. Ignoring it for now, he picked himself up from off the ground and looked around for his weapon. It was several feet away, lying in the snow. He walked over and picked it up, glad he had the strength to carry it, as he knew his back would hate him more if he placed it there. With another look around, he continued forward to another ledge with an archway close by. He shuffled carefully, knowing that he wouldn't be as lucky if he fell from this height.

When he entered the room, there was nothing there but a lever and bookcases. He walked over to it, and after a quick look around, pulled it with ease. As it slid into the next position, a wall of books slowly started to move its way into the wall. He saw a ladder attached to it's end, and as he looked into the next room he groaned internally. ' _Really! A giant loop! Who the hell designed this place!_ ' He continued to grumble to himself as he rushed to climb the ladder, not wanting to deal with the ghosts once again. As he reached the top, he checked his surroundings, only to see that there was no one there. He thought that he may have found a place to rest, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong, something _very_ wrong.

He approached a set of stairs, and climbed until he reached what looked to be the roof. As he walked off the stairs and onto the roof, he shivered again, and he knew it wasn't from the cold. The feeling he had felt had only gotten worse as he had climbed, and as he looked around he saw something that made his heart skip a beat.

There, in the middle of the roof, was a person cloaked in a red glow, stepping out of a puddle of blood.

He had been invaded.

They had a feminine build, and were dressed in clothing that looked to be a mixture of old bone and cloth. They wore a tall hat, with a bone mask covering their face. In one hand they held a twin-blade, in the other a long pistol, and they had a curved looking sword on their back. They stood in a confident stance, and after several seconds they turned to Navlaan.

"Well, it looks as if I've found another _toy_ to play with."

He hadn't expected it to talk, and certainly didn't expect the sultry tone of a woman. He had heard of invaders. They were people who, with enough want to cause suffering, could invade others with the intent to murder. They were thought of as less than people, as monstrous as beasts, with good reason. It was thought that they sacrificed pieces of their humanity each time they invaded. With fear in his heart Navlaan reached back and placed his hammer on his back, preparing his sword, knowing he would need speed for this battle.

The woman, instead of readying herself, laughed a chilling, spine tingling laugh. "Well, this one certainly has some courage! I'm impressed! My last few victims were spineless, running before I had even fully appeared." She continued to laugh, as if this was truly the funniest thing she'd seen in a long time. When she finally calmed down enough, she spoke again, her voice full of mirth. "I haven't had a laugh like that for years. Tell you what, If you last longer than thirty seconds, I tell you the name of your killer, Huh?"

Navlaan thought about replying, but decided against it and focused of her movements, waiting for the right moment to strike.

The woman stayed as she was, in a relaxed position. She spoke again in her seductive tone "Oh, no reply? I'll take that as a yes then. You look experienced, but experience comes with age, no? I'm sure you don't have the stamina you would have had if you were younger."

"Don't count me out yet, _dearie_."

"Oh, did you-"

 _Shing_

She was cut off as Navlaan dodged forward, preparing to strike her down as quickly as possible. What he didn't expect was for her own blade to be there, blocking his strike. Her stance had changed instantly, now with legs and body facing sideways, legs slightly bent to stabilize herself against the force of his blow. Their faces were much closer now, and through her mask he could see her eyes narrow.

"Well now, that wasn't very nice, was it?"

With that, she swung him off her blade, sending him stumbling behind her. He heard the discharge of a gun, felt as a bullet entered his side, further disorienting him.

"I mean, I get that you might be terrified, but that's no reason to attack a seemingly defenseless opponent. At least I have standards for myself!"

He turn as fast as he could, and barely blocked her next strike. She was swift, elegant, and deadly in her movements, each movement precise and meant to kill. If he had been any less skilled, he would have been dead in seconds. That's not to say he wasn't losing, as she was much faster than him, and even though he was fully on the defensive, he was only able to turn away the more lethal strikes. The rest scratched and scraped his sides, arms, and face. She was more skilled, and certainly more ready for this fight than he was.

He dodged away, hoping to have a brief respite from the onslaught of attacks. He was breathing heavily, and as he went to grab a vial of blood, the woman threw a bottle at his face. A sickly sweet smell entered his nose as he injected the blood into his veins. After waiting for a few seconds for the vial to kick in, he realized that it wasn't working. He looked up as the woman chuckled. "Oh, no you don't. It's not very courteous to heal during a dual." As she spoke, she shoved her gun into the holster on her waist. Then with two hands she gripped her twinblade and snapped it in half. "You've lasted more than a minute, impressive, though you're not a very good sport. Regardless, I gave my word. My name is Jazabelle Lynch. I'd ask for yours in return,

 _But your just some no name cowardly son of a bitch, aren't you?_ "

With a flourish she sprang forward, and attacked twice as fast as before. With each hand holding a weapon, if he turned one blow, she could slice with the other.

"There are rules for these types of engagements, you know? Mainly three, but you can always incorporate more."

A jagged slice up the arm, broken finger, a scratch on the side of his neck.

"Rule number one: The duel begins when both duelists are ready. Oh look, you've already broken that one!"

A nasty stab to the thigh, a bisected ear, a bruised and bleeding nose.

"Rule number two: Neither duelist will treat their wounds, or try to treat their wounds like you, until the battle is over!"

A drawback to finish him.

In an act of desperation Navlaan took his blunderbuss and shot as fast as he could pull the trigger. He hit her mid swing, and she was blasted back, down on her knees. But instead of taking advantage of the situation, as he would have in a calmer state of mind, he sheathed his sword and ran to the edge of the building. He had seen a path this way during the fight, and he prayed to God it went somewhere.

As he was running, Jazabelle glared at his back, quickly getting over the shock of being hit in favor of trying to stop him. She snapped her weapon together and placed it on her back. Quickly grabbing the other sword from her back, she flicked her wrist and caught an item that fell from it when it split. An arrow. Aiming, she placed the arrow on the once-sword-now-bow's string.

"And finally, rule number three:"

She took aim.

"The duel is never over,"

She pulled back.

"Until one's foe lays dead on the floor"

She released.

The arrow sliced through the air, and as it about reached Navlaan, he turned slightly to drop down. It entered his side, and the tip exited the other side. As intense pain blinded him momentarily, he fell off the edge. He was only barely able to cling to the side of the next buildings roof. He tried to pull himself up, but it only made him more aware of the arrow ripping through his side. He looked around for a place to drop safely.

' _There!'_ and with that started climbing along the edge to reach a small walkway. Once he reached it, he dropped down and fell to one knee. Picking himself up, he turned and saw a ladder. He looked back to check for the invader, and saw she had dropped down to the long walkway where she had shot him. Ignoring the pain as best he could, he quickly climbed the ladder. At its end, he saw a small walkway that lead to an arch, which sat between two walls. He quickly shuffled through the arch, holding his side, looking for somewhere to escape. The roof he stood on had several small spires set around it, looking more like decoration for the castle than actually being o use. But only one thing mattered to him, and he felt a shiver of fear go down his spine.

It was a dead end.

He turned back to look as Jazabelle walked up to the archway, but didn't pass through the arch. She started to laugh again, but there was no amusement in it this time. She cut it short and spoke, anger easily recognisable in her voice.

"Hmph, executioner versus executioner. I wish you best of luck against your _Master_." And with that, she grabbed a small flare from her waistband and shot it. She began to fade, and gave a mocking curtsy before she winked out of sight.

' _What does she mean by...oh no.'_ Gripping his side, he turned to see a decrepit corpse sitting in a throne. As he watched, the body slowly shattered the thin layer of ice that surrounded it. It then began to rise from its throne, slow, but sporadic, before turning toward himself. Its body was clothed in a golden variant of the executioners thick attire. It wore several golden necklaces around its neck, and a golden, jeweled crown on its head. In one of its hand's it held a large scythe, and in the other it held a wicked sword.

Navlaan looked in horror.

He had found Master Logarius.

***Line Break***

 **Holy shit, you have no idea how fun that was to write. Also, cliffhanger! And for the record, that invader was my brothers character. Any way, I have gotten some good feedback since I started writing this, so I assume I'm doing well.**

 **I take back what I said after last chapter, about it being long. This was long.**

 **Thanks again lads and lasses, and as always; if you see any errors, point them out to me. I've gone back three times and each time I've found something wrong. This was a long one, so I know I didn't catch them all. Bye!**

 **(Edit: I added more dialog to the fight. I think it makes her seem more skilled. I also fixed some other mistakes.)**

 **(Edit #2: I fixed some of the fight once again, I didn't think it was smooth writing, and went out to fix it. Also added more description to Logarius, and gave the arena a bit more detail.)**


	4. The Knight and The Challenge

**Hey Lads and Lasses! So I can see this story is slowly getting better and better as I write. Thanks to you all, I have a reason to keep writing besides my own enjoyment. After all, what's the point if those who read it don't enjoy it?**

 **Anyway, here is more, just for you guys.**

***Line Break***

The Knight and The Challenge

***Line Break***

 _He turned back to look as Jazabelle walked up to the archway, but didn't pass through the arch. She started to laugh again, but there was no amusement in it this time. She cut it short and spoke, anger easily recognisable in her voice._

 _"Hm, executioner versus executioner. I wish you best of luck against your Master." And with that, she grabbed a small flare from her waistband and shot it. She curtsied as she faded._

 _'What does she mean by...oh no.' Gripping his side, he turned to see a decrepit corpse sitting in a throne. As he watched, the body slowly shattered the thin layer of ice that surrounded it. It then began to rise from its throne, before turning toward himself. Its body was clothed in a golden variant of the executioners normal attire. It wore several golden necklaces and a crown on its head. In one of its hand's it held a large scythe, and in the other it held a sword._

 _Navlaan looked in horror._

 _He had found Master Logarius._

***Line break***

The Knight watched from atop one of the castle spires as the executioner ran from the invader, and had been content to watch as he hobbled toward the ladder that led to his _precious Martyr_. The queen had allowed them to further watch the executioner, wanting to get a slightly closer look. They had enjoyed watching him fend for himself, and were about to move to a new position when they felt a smack on their leg. They looked down to see a small, white, unsightly creature, and on its head a small top hat rested. It was looking up at them, one hand on their leg. They were about to kick it away, when it held up a small piece of parchment with the other hand. They reached down and grabbed it, then watched as the creature disappeared with a small ripple. They looked at the paper, confused beyond belief at what was written there.

' _Please help him... What, that's it!? Why the hell would I help him!'_ They were about to silently rant, when the creature reappeared by their leg once again, holding another piece. Snatching it away, they read it and they became even more confused. ' _Their my friend...'_ They looked down to see the creature had its hands clasped, as if begging them to do as the small letter asked. They seemed stunned, but then they narrowed their eyes. "Did you write this?" They asked.

The creature nodded. Than, it lowered its head and brought its hands up. There was no doubt that it was begging now.

They sighed, grabbed their helmet, and slid it onto their head. They wouldn't have anyone, or anything, begging them to do something. They did have standards, and no matter who he was, this little _thing_ liked him enough for it to want for his survival. With one last look at the creature, who looked as if it were trying to smile, they leapt off the spire, knowing exactly how to get to the executioner in time.

***Line Break***

When they finally made it to the ledge behind Logarius, they caught a glimpse of the invader as they faded, giving a little curtsy as they did so. When the invader had disappeared, they looked over to the man. He was covered in wounds, and there was an arrow stuck in his side. With how old he looked, and the amount of blood he seemed to have lost, it was a surprise that he was even standing. They watched as his expression went from shocked to grim, and he slowly drew his sword, preparing to fight the Martyr.

' _I must admit, he certainly has courage. But he is foolish if he thinks he has a chance.'_ They watch as Logarius begins to cast spell after spell, with the executioner barely able to get out of the way. He slowly made his way towards the Martyr, and once he reached Logarius, he swung...

And kneeled over, pain obvious in both his expression and his posture. Logarius took up his scythe in both hands, and prepared to strike. ' _Well, I think that's long enough_ ' the knight thought and they leapt forward, reaching the two in seconds. With a slash, and a groan, Logarius stumbled back. The knight, now in front of Logarius, pressed their advantage by continuing to hack and slash at the Martyr, before dodging back and grabbing the executioner. Ignoring his moans of pain, the knight pulled him behind one of the spires in the area. They quickly grabbed one of the blood vials on his sash, and was about to inject him, when they smelt a disgusting sickly sweet scent. ' _Numbing Mist, and a potent batch, by the smell._ ' How the invader had gotten ahold of it was a mystery, but now was not the time to speculate.

With an irritated sigh, the knight sat the executioner up, and moved to face the husk of Logarius. He looked at them for several seconds, before launching several small spells, seeming to form form faces, at the knight. They moved between the spells, but the closest to them tracked their movements, striking and stunning them. He than dodged back, leaving a large, stationary spell in his place. The knight dodged away as quickly as they could, but with a swing of his scythe the spell exploded, sending the knight several paces back. They quickly righted themselves, and sprinted to reach the Martyr. When they had made it within a few feet of him, he swung his scythe again. They dodged under it, and as he was recovering they inserted their katana into its sheath, and pressed a symbol on its side. After several seconds, they gripped the blade with both hands and swung in a wide arc.

Blood splattered as Logarius fell to his knees, the force of the attack too much for his brittle body. The knight advanced, their sword covered in gobs of blood. They stabbed it into his back, and sliced upward. The corpse like man scream as his back was torn to pieces. Feeling drained the knight slashed sideways, removing the blood from the their katana. With one swift motion, they reached for a strap on their back, grabbed one of their blood vials, and thrust it into the crook of their arm. Relieved and energized, the knight looked toward Logarius. He was kneeling over, and after a moment of struggling he stood. Taking both his sword and his scythe, he slowly lifted his arms into the air. The knight's eyes widened behind their helmet, and they were about to move out of the way when Logarius slammed his weapons into the ground.

They were blown back and hit the wall behind the Martyr's now destroyed chair. ' _Oww...Damn that smarts._ ' They tried to get up, but found that it was almost impossible to move. They continued to struggle, watching as Logarius lowered his sword tip toward them. With swift steps he crossed the distance between them and as he swung down, they could only shuffle to the side, barely avoiding being impaled. He swung again and this time they were able to roll over, before scrambling back. They moved only a few feet before their back hit the wall. They were able to pick themselves up off the ground, but they were winded, and were drained of energy. They went to ready their weapon, but found that it wasn't in their hands. They could only watch as Logarius lifted his sword, preparing to run them through. They got into a crouched position, hoping to be able to do something. After a second, Logarius stabbed forward

And impaled their arm into the wall.

' _FUCK, you son of a BITCH!'_ The knight clutched at the sword, yelling obscenities at the man in their mind. They had smacked the sword as to not get stabbed in the stomach, but weren't able to put enough force behind the hit. Logaruis gripped his sword and pulled, eliciting a yell from the knight. They gasped and gripped their arm. With a glare unseen from behind their helm, they ran forward, slamming into the Martyr's chest. As he stumbled, They reached for another blood vial, and stabbed it right above their wound. With the pain dulled, they quickly looked around for their katana, and found it several paces to the side of the unconscious executioner.

Or formerly unconscious executioner.

He was trying to stand, gripping the wall for support. He had one hand in his bag, and pulled out a small, decorated jug. Popping the seal, he downed the contents. He than grabbed the arrow in his side, and ripped it out. With the quick use of a blood vial, he started to look refreshed. he glanced toward the knight and nodded his head in acknowledgment, before facing the Martyr once more. He was moving sluggishly, but Logarius had already turned his attention toward him. The Martyr lifted his sword and swung at the executioner, and the knight winced when he didn't even try to dodge. But somehow, he completely ignored the hit, instead he grabbed his hammer from his back. He then slowly swung it behind him, as if storing his energy. He then smashed forward, slamming the hammer into Logarius. He staggered back, but the executioner wasn't done. He swung the hammer back around and smashed down again, before shoving forward into like a battering ram, knocking the former executioner to his knees. With one last swing the man spun on his feet, using the hammer to keep up his momentum, before smashing Logarius in the chest.

The corpse of a man launched backwards, landing on his back. The executioner slowed himself and dodge back. He looked back at the knight, who was in complete shock, before bending over and grabbing the katana on the ground. He stood up, adjusted his glasses, and handed the sword out handle first to the knight.

"We're not done yet. Let's finish this corpse." He gestured for the knight to take the sword. Finally over their shock, they grabbed the hilt and nodded. Together they turned and looked toward the man as he climbed back to his feet. Both executioner and knight rushed toward him, The knight holding their weapon high, the executioner holding theirs low. When they reached him, he had just gotten to his feet. The knight struck first, slashing across his chest, and then stomach. The executioner came in next, swinging his weapon up, hitting them man in the jaw. With a loud _crack_ , Logarius fell once again. And with fire in his eyes, the executioner slammed the hammer back down, caving in the man's chest.

And with one loud screech, the Martyr fell silent.

The knight watched as the executioner fell to one knee, into a praying stance. With eyes closed and hands clasped, he began to pray in a soft voice. The knight couldn't hear what he was saying, but they could take a guess as to its meaning.

He was honoring his master's soul.

When he finished, he crossed the corpse's arms and grabbed its weapons. He placed the scythe to its right and the sword on its left. Finally he took the crown from its head, unhooked its cloak, and draped it over its body. Then he spoke, "And in the end he held on to our beliefs, even if it left him in this twisted, unsightly form."

He turned to the knight, who had taken the crown from his side. He stuck his hand out to his side and bowed "While I'm sure we both know what we are, I won't attack someone who has just saved my life. My name is Navlaan, Executioner and Hunter of the Dream." He waited for the knight to respond in kind, but they simply turned and removed their helm.

Brown locks of hair fell as the knight lifted the helmet from their face. Their eyes were a deep hazel color, and their lips were set in a thin line. They were young, in their late twenties at most. They placed the crown on their head, and waited.

"My name is Latune." And that is all she said.

After a few moments, the wall beside them shimmered and a large portion of the castle, invisible before, suddenly appeared. With slightly jerky movements, Latune returned the crown on the ground, placed her katana in it sheath, and entered the building. She climbed the large set of stairs as quickly as she could and entered the throne room. She almost had to stop herself from running right up to the Queen, and deeply bowed as soon as she was a few feet in front of her.

She breathed heavily, overjoyed that finally her Queen was free. No longer would she be forced to remain in the throne room, commanding her servants from afar. As her breathing quieted, the Queen finally spoke, but not to her.

"Visitor, thou hast made it a last. Kneel before me, and listen to what I must say."

Latune stayed as she was, but she could sense as Navlaan grew near. He paused next to her, before getting on one knee and bowing. Latune smirked, and listened as the Queen spoke again.

"Thou hast honored thy master, and removed an obstacle in mine way. Mine knight has collected and brought me dregs of blood, and with them I hold the attention of a great one. I can finally giveth birth to a child of blood. But in mine time, with the insight I now posses, I have come across knowledge that has never been recorded in all of history. I have learned that with enough power, a surrogate mother of a great one may instead ask a simple request, but in exchange the surrogate will be absorbed entirely. I have come to care for mine knight, and I have come to think that she deserveth better than what this world has to offer. The great one I have communicated with, know as Moon Presence, has told me that thou ist a simple soul, and would be able to guide her. With help of Moon Presence, thou would be taken to a new world, a world with little interference from the great ones, and remain there."

Navlaan and Latune both looked up at her, shocked, before looking at each other. Latune then spoke, anger and fear easily heard in her voice. "Forgive me my Queen for speaking out of turn, but I am expected to go with this...this...this Executioner, to some new world!? and in the process lose you as well?! You have finally become free, and I will not...no...I _cannot_ accept this!"

The Queen looked at her, before speaking in a low, dangerous tone, "Thee would do well to remember thine place, my knight! I am thine queen, and though I care for thee, this is not a request, Thou wilt obey mine command!"

Latune looked down, suddenly aware that she was standing. She slowly dropped to one knee again, and spoke in a much softer voice, "Apologies, my Queen, I let my emotions control me. I will do as you have asked, without question."

The Queen lowered in her chair, looking winded. "I had hopes thou would accept this willingly enough, but it seems that ist not the case." She turned her head to Navlaan, who looked stunned, "I knoweth also of thine relationship with those who reside in the dream. Moon Presence has allowed that you take the doll to this new world. But thine friend and mentor must remain. He is who summoned the dream, and he must remain in the dream."

Navlaan's expressions went from confusion to devastation. When he spoke, his voice was full of sadness and desperation, "There...There must be some way...some method of bringing them both! I can't simply leave him there, who else does he have but me and the doll..."

"I am sorry, but the great one simply cannot allow it."

Navlaan stared for several seconds, and then looked down. After a moment he looked back up, reluctant acceptance visible in his eyes, "As you wish, Annalise, Queen of Cainhurst."

The Queen looked at them both, before a small smile graced her lips, before she turned and spoke to Latune. "Thou hast served me well, but it is time for thine final challenge. Remain strong, as thou always has, and thee will go far." Suddenly she went stock still, and a lantern appeared before the two, and then she relaxed, "It is time for thee to go. Take this Lantern, and leave for the dream. When thou hast entered the garden of flowers and tombs, thou will be taken to the new world."

The two stood, and Latune approached the Queen directly. After several seconds of silence, Latune spoke.

"May I...?"

"...Of course."

And with that, Latune kneeled and wrapped her arms around the Queen, holding her tightly.

"Thank you...for everything..."

Latune than let go, backed away, and looked to Navlaan.

"Ready?" He asked.

"No."

And the two touched the lantern, leaving the throne room. Never to return.

***Line Break***

 **Boy, That was a doozy. Hello again Lads and Lasses, to the end of the chapter. Now, while I certainly enjoyed writing this, I can tell that it is not my best work, or that's how it seems to me. I really liked it, but I may go back to the end and fix that up. That was my main concern.**

 **So, I have a question to pose to you guys. Where should they appear when they enter the RWBY universe? I've thought it over, and I just can't think of a place.**

 **Anyway, With that out of the way. I have figured out an uploading schedule. Sundays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and some Saturdays if I am feeling up to it.**

 **Well, with that being the end, I'll be seeing you guys. Bye!**

 **(Edit: Not much here, I've already looked over it a bunch of times, so just a few grammatical mistakes.)**


	5. The Great One and a New World

**Hello once again, Lads and Lasses!**

 **So I got an idea from 'Evinco' that I really liked, and I'm going to go with it. So I tip my hat to them.**

 **Anyway, on with the show...chapter, I meant chapter.**

***Line Break***

The Great One and a New World

POV: Latune

***Line Break***

When they exited the lantern, it felt as if she was waking up from a dream. Disorienting, jolting, and left her bewildered. Taking in her surroundings, she saw a large building in front of her with stairs leading to its door, and a tall woman standing at the bottom of them. Latune watched as Navlaan stood, as if he had done this hundreds of times. He looked back at her and held out his hand, presumably to help her off the ground. She glared at him and picked herself up, shakily getting to her feet. Her stomach churned, but she remained steady. She looked at him again, as if daring him to try and help. He shrugged, looking slightly dejected, and jogged to the building in front of them.

He stopped in front of the woman and, after exchanging a greeting, opened his arms and embraced her. The woman jolted, before slowly wrapping her arms around him, obviously to anyone that she was not used to being touched. Latune walked toward them, and stopped a few yards away. She only had to wait seconds before they distanced themselves. Navlaan turned from the woman to her, and spoke, "Latune, this is my dear friend, the Doll. Doll, this is Latune, Knight of Queen Annalise. She saved my life, and will be travelling with us."

Up close, Latune immediately noticed something off about this woman. She had extremely pale skin, on the verge of pure white. She looked almost porcelain, and her eyes were a strange, cream-like color. Her clothing was strange, but the way she wore it, it was as if she were made for it. But what really threw her off were the Doll's hands. They were sectioned, like hinges, and yet she could move each one fluidly. As her name suggested, she look like a doll.

The Doll bowed to her, before turning back to Navlaan in confusion. "Travelling with us? Where are we going?"

Navlaan's feature softened, sadness in his eyes once again. "About that. Can you...Can you two wait in the workshop for me? I need to fetch Gehrman. Doll, if you could heat the kettle please. This is going to take some time." With that, he turned and walked toward the side entrance of the workshop.

Looking back at the Doll, Latune found her staring strangely at her. She glared back, and spoke in a cold voice.

" _What?_ "

"I am just curious as to why you would save Navlaan. You are a Vileblood, he is an Executioner. Would you not gain in some way by letting him die? Not that I am ungrateful, but..."

"It doesn't make sense to you?" She laughed "It shouldn't, because normally I would have let him _die_."

The Doll's eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak, but Latune continued before she could.

"But when he was attacked, a small white creature in a top hat begged me to save him. I wouldn't just... _What?!_ Why are you looking at me like that!" The Doll's eyes had widened even further when she described the creature, before she turned and gestured to the ground. Where there had once been nothing now sat the same small creature, this time with a bloody bandage wrapped around its head, and a hat in its hands. It looked up at her and waved, before climbing up the Doll and resting on her shoulder.

Latune stood, mouth wide open, as the Doll began to fuss over the creatures bandage. When she was finished, she sat the hat back on its head, and she looked back at Latune with a small smile on her face. "This is what is called a little one, or Messenger. Beings from this dream that deliver messages to the hunters of the dream, or hunter, seeing as there are no other hunters here."

"So... it was one of you sent that message?"

"Not that I know of. Though this one is particularly attached to Navlaan, his own personal messenger if you will, and may have written the message itself. Come, let us wait for Navlaan and Gehrman in the workshop. I have some tea to make."

***Line Break***

She was sipping on tea when Navlaan entered, following him was a man in a wheelchair who she presumed was Gehrman. He looked older than Navlaan, and his face was fixed in a grim expression. She set her tea down and stood to greet the man. She bowed, and he nodded his head back. The Doll served both men tea, before taking a seat on the coffin in the room. After taking a sip, Navlaan spoke in a crestfallen tone. "I have finally honored my master, his soul is finally able to rest." He smiled slightly, before it fell from his lips. "I have also spoken with the Queen of the Vilebloods. The Queen has gain blood and insight over these years, enough that she was able to speak with the great one of this dream. She came to an agreement with it, and has decided that Latune, her knight, be sent to a new world. One with little interference from great ones. She has also asked that I accompany Latune on this journey, in order to help and guide her."

He breathed in for a moment.

"I have decided to accept."

The Doll and Gehrman took a moment to digest this new information, before Gehrman looked toward Navlaan. "This is strange, strange indeed. I have never heard of something like this before. An agreement with a great one."

"My Queen stated that it was something she discovered recently." Latune spoke, as if she were boasting. "She also said that her doing so was the first time in history."

Gehrman 'hmm'd' and took a sip of his tea. He then looked back at Navlaan, "Well, if that is so, then what is it that you are so depressed about? An opportunity to leave this wretched world behind is a great boon, some would say a blessing."

Navlaan looked at him sadly, "She also said that the Doll may come with, but that you must remain, as you are the master of the dream."

Gehrman thought for a moment. His lips began to form a grin, and he started chuckling. Soon he was doubled over in his chair, laughter loud and joyous. As he calmed, he smiled up at Navlaan. "You're an idiot, you know that? A halfwit, a moron, a ninny, an imbecile!" He glared, but the smile never left his face. "All this sadness over me not going with you, when we should be celebrating! The Doll is finally free of this place!"

Latune looked at him in surprise, but Navlaan, stunned for a moment, slowly let a smile cross his face.

"Of course you would think of the brightside." He lifted his teacup to his lips and finished what was left, before looking to Gehrman, "Since when did you become such an optimist?"

Gehrman smirked. "As soon as I learned that I wouldn't have to suffer through another of your stories."

Navlaan sighed and shook his head, before looking to the Doll. "Well, would you like to come with? This is the one chance you will ever get."

The Doll looked down momentarily, before looking back up at Gehrman "I will not leave, if you do not wish me to, Gehrman. You are my creator, and I would not go against your wishes."

Gehrman looked at her, his tone suddenly serious. "You are your own person Doll. It is truly your decision, but if you want my opinion I'll gladly give it to you." He slowly wheeled over to her and clasped her hands in his own. Looking up at her, he spoke in a soft tone. "You deserve this more than anyone in this world. That you live is a miracle in itself, but you will never have anything worth living for if you stay here." He let go of her hands and gently grabbed her arm. "Go, I know you wish to."

The Doll lifted her hands to her eyes, the beginning of tear tracks slowly falling down her cheeks. "Thank you...so much." She reached down and embraced Gehrman. Navlaan walked over and joined them, and she adjusted her grip to encompass him as well.

' _They really care about each other, don't they?'_ Latune thought to herself. And as the Doll let the two men go, Latune looked out the door, one that led to a bird bath, and watched as a person entered her view. ' _Another hunter? Wait, the Doll said that Navlaan was the only one here. so who...I've seen that armor before._ ' She turned to the others, speaking quickly. "We have a problem!"

Navlaan looked at her, confused. "What? What is it?"

"You remember that invader you faced?"

"Jazabelle." He muttered. Fear crossed his eyes. "Yes, of course I do."

"Their walking toward the workshop!"

Gehrman looked from Latune to Navlaan. "WHAT! You faced an invader!" He narrowed his eyes, "They lived, didn't they!? They phased out of the world?"

Navlaan nodded. He was about to speak when Gehrman cut him off, looking as if he were about to strangle Navlaan.

"You fool, you led them straight here! They were still connected to you, and now they've come to try and finish the job!"

Latune looked back out the door, then quickly turned back. "Their getting closer!" She looked to Gehrman, "How could they get here?"

"Like I said, they were still connected to Navlaan. If they can't finish an opponent, they can track their _'_ _prey'_ and finish them off when they don't expect it." He jerked his thumb at Navlaan, "And this bumbling buffoon just led them straight here! Now, Navlaan, where do you need to be for this 'transportation' to happen?"

"We have to be at the 'Garden of flowers and tombs', but I've never heard of such a place!"

"It is the area beyond the locked gate. Come, we must get there quickly!"

***Line Break***

By the time they reached the end of the slope, the woman was waiting for them. ' _Jazabelle, that's what Navlaan called her._ ' She had her confident stance back, and she seemed to be staring specifically at Navlaan.

"Oh, would you look at _that._ You brought some friends, how _wonderful!_ " She than looked over the group, and her eyes stopped at the Doll. She continued to speak to Navlaan, but her focus seemed to be entirely on the Doll. "You know, I would ask for the name of the _Coward_ that escaped me, but I'd much rather have the one of this lovely woman."

The Doll looked confused, but Navlaan stepped forward. His voice stern, sword drawn, and eyes narrowed. "You will not so much as lay a finger on her."

Her mask covered her face, but her flirtatious voice gave away her smirk. "Oh, a bit protective, are we? Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of _hurting_ this precious gem. Though, I can certainly dream other things about her."

Navlaan looked as if he were about to charge, but was stopped short by a hand being pressed into his stomach. In his hand was dropped a key. Gehrman was glaring at the vile woman, and his eyes never left her as he spoke. "Get to the gate. I will hold her off." Latune was about to question how, when he rose from his chair. From behind his cape he pulled out a large blade and from his chair, a staff. With one swift motion he snapped the blade to the staff, the weapons becoming a scythe.

"Oh, you'll hold me off, will you? Well come on then, let me see what you've got!"

He rushed at the woman and swept her legs out from under her, making her fall to the ground. He turned back to them.

"Go, _now_!"

Latune didn't question him, but Navlaan looked as if he were going to object and the Doll looked fearful. "Come on, we need to go!" She watched as Gehrman fought the woman for a bit longer, seeming to hold his own, "I'm sure he'll be fine." Navlaan looked at her and slowly nodded, the Doll quickly following suit. Navlaan led the way to the gate, and she turned around to see that Jazabelle had gotten adjusted to his fighting style already, and he was slowly losing ground. She turned back around and caught up with the other two.

Navlaan fumbled a few seconds with the key before he slid it into the slot and turned. The gates swung open and they rushed into the area. Latune had barely made it a few yards before she heard a loud gunshot. Surprised, she turned and watched as, at the foot of the gate, Gehrman fell to one knee, stunned. The woman walked up to him and, holding his shoulder, shoved her hand into his chest.

She turned away as she heard the sound of ripping, before a horrific scream escaped the man. She moved quickly to blocked Navlaan as he went to try and help his friend. "We need to leave, now!"

The Doll turned her eyes away from what she assumed was a bloody mess to the sky. "Look, the moon..."

She turned her attention to the sky and saw something appear from behind the moon. A large creature with a very bony body, hundreds of bloody looking ribs coming out of it's spine. It had no other visible features on its head beside a gaping hole for what looked to be a mouth, and large strands of hair-like tentacles. It had long, thin limbs with clawed hands at the end of each one. It's rough looking skin was black, but seemed to be covered in blood. It looked disgusting, and terrifying. And yet it gave off a sense of calm that instantly washed over her.

"Moon Presence" She whispered in awe.

She seemed drawn to it, and she could see that both the Doll and Navlaan were as captivated as her. As it landed, it gently used its claws and pushed Navlaan and the Doll toward her. The calming feeling made her forget the invader, who had snuck up on them. The woman had reached out a hand and just barely grabbed Navlaan's shoulder, when the creature wrapped it's arms around them and pulled them in, almost like an embrace, and she knew no more.

***Line Break***

' _Awaken, child of forsaken blood, you are needed._ '

Latune slowly opened her eyes, only to see nothing but white. She looked around frantically, before a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned and saw the Doll in front of her, looking down at her with concern on her face. Latune quickly picked herself up, looking beyond the Doll to see a very strange sight. She rubbed her eyes, not believing what she was seeing.

Navlaan was on the floor, legs crossed and one hand on his chin, as he looked at some sort of game board. Across from him...was Moon Presence. The creature was moving a piece on the board with one of its clawed fingers. Navlaan grinned, before moving one of his pieces and knocking another off the board. He lifted his hands into the air.

"Haha, Check!"

Moon Presence looked over at her, not even watching as it moved a piece on the board, and Navlaan's expression turned from joy to disbelief. He looked from the board, to the creature, and back. He then fell back, raised his hands to his face, and groaned. Moon Presence didn't even acknowledge him as he floated over to her.

' _Ah, you are awake. Then we may finally begin discussing your future.'_

Latune's mouth dropped as the voice of the creature entered her head. It was a strange feeling, as the voice didn't have any sort of accent. It seemed to just appear in her mind, almost like she just knew what it wanted to say. She looked over at Navlaan, who was now glaring at Moon Presence. Confused, she turned back to the creature. "What happened? How long have I been unconscious? Where is Gehrman...did he survive?"

' _You have been taken to my domain, and you have been asleep for only two hours in your time. As for Gehrman, he can't be killed so easily. He is currently back at the Hunter's Workshop, recovering.'_

She breathed a sigh of relief, before noticing a figure behind Navlaan. ' _T_ _he invader! What is she doing here?'_ She was about to voice her concern when Moon Presence answered her.

' _She was taken with you as we left the dream. I would return her but I am already weak, and if any more of my power is wasted, I cannot take you further than my realm. She will travel with you, but I assure you that she will not appear with you. I know of her wish to kill Navlaan, and I am sympathetic to your group. The Queen asked for your safety above all else.'_

Latune's mood fell at the mention of her Queen, and she just had to ask. "Have...have you already...absorbed her?"

The Great One faced its head toward her, tilting, before responding. ' _I have, it was just before I left here. I assure you, it was a painless process.'_

She nodded, and turned to Navlaan, who was currently talking to the Doll about how the Great One was probably cheating.

' _Come, I have some things to discuss with you all before I take you the rest of the way.'_

Moon Presence waved a claw, and the gameboard disappeared. Motioning for her to follow, it floated back to Navlaan. Once they were all facing it, it spoke.

' _As you have been told, I am taking you all to a new world. This world is little like your own, but there is a similarity. This world has monstrous beasts, which they have named the Creatures of Grimm. These Grimm come in many forms, but they are common in the form of a lycanthrope, much like the ones you have faced in your world. These creatures have a key difference, they are not formed from humans. They are soulless creatures formed from darkness, and are drawn to the negative emotions of humanity.'_

The Great One's tone became less intense, ' _But through it all, humanity has prospered. Finding deposits of what they named "dust" they overcame the Grimm, and built great kingdoms to protect themselves. There are two groups of human like beings on this world, those like you, and those with animalistic traits. They are advanced in technology, and have discovered the power of the soul. Wielding this power are a select group of people, known as Hunters and Huntresses. These people are much like the three of you,'_ It pointed a claw at Navlaan, the unconscious invader, and herself. ' _As they hunt beast for either their own gain, or to help others. Should you need them, they will be your allies.'_

' _Where I am sending you is an area outside one of the kingdoms, known as Mountain Glenn. A destroyed attempt at expansion for the Kingdom of Vale, this area is surrounded by Grimm and unsavory beings. Stay alert, and when you find civilization, approach them with caution. In their eyes, your weapons and clothing are outdated, and your weapons even more so. But above all else, do not approach the Woman of Flame.'_

Moon Presence raised its head, then lowered. ' _Your time has arrived, my strength is gathered. Remain still, and close your eyes.'_ She did so, and felt the Great One's claws around her. The calmness embraced her once again, and she fell into slumber.

' _Good luck.'_

***Line Break***

 **Man, these things are getting longer and longer,** **not that that is a bad thing. Anyway, if you haven't noticed, we are finally entering Remnant. I don't plan on them meeting Team RWBY immediately, if you were wondering.**

 **I had Moon Presence to be the explainer of the world, since it is a great one. There won't be much of it, but I did enjoy writing it, for some reason. I'm not sure if this is in game, but I swear that I heard once that the Great One's were 'Sympathetic in spirit' or something like that. So that's why it's a more caring than you would think one would be.**

 **Thanks again, Lads and Lasses, and I'll see you all on Friday. Bye!**

 **(Edit: I changed a bit of Moon Presence's conversation, and a lot of the talk between the Doll, Gehrman, Navlaan, and Latune. Also a couple other small things throughout.)**


	6. The Grimm and Mountain Glenn

**And we are back, Lads and Lasses.**

 **Now, I have to say something to all of you. The readers, the followers, the favoriters (New words!), the reviewers, and the people who have helped me.**

 **Thank you. You guys are awesome. Whether you've enjoyed it, or it is just a casual read, I thank you. From the feedback I've gotten, it is going well, and though there aren't many reviews they've helped me. To either keep going, or to help in its development (Looking at you, Got Mercy and Guest).**

 **Alright, you're probably thinking 'enough sap!', well don't worry. Awesomeness AWAITS!  
**  
***Line Break***

The Grimm and Mountain Glenn

POV: Navlaan

***Line Break***

Two men stood in their sentry post, casually talking with each other. They both wore atlesian armor, and each holding small pistols. One had a maroon stripe on his helmet, and the other had an orange one. The maroon one suddenly turns to his partner.

"Hey"

"Yeah?"

"You ever wonder why we're here?"

"It's one of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here? I mean, are we the product of some dust-made coincidence, or is Monty really watching over us all? You know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don't know, man, but it keeps me up at night."

"Umm, I meant why are we here on the wall, holding pistols? They won't reach any Grimm."

"Oh... Because the view is nice?"

"What was all that stuff about Monty?"

The orange one turned to look off the wall.

"Nothin- _HOLY SHIT!_ "

"What? What did you see?"

"I...I swear I just saw a flash of light out in the trees."

"Are you sure?"

"Umm, yes...no...I don't know! Didn't you see it!?"

"No, I was looking at you!"

"Maybe...maybe we should get off the wall. I must be seeing things..."

***Line Break***

' _God dammit, why am I always getting knocked out! Could have warned us, the damn cheater.'_

Navlaan looked around, making sure that there were no 'Grimm' around. He didn't know what they looked like, but they would probably not look like that cuddly, black bunny he found earlier, and would most likely try to rip his throat out on sight.

He was the first up, if you didn't count Doll, who literally couldn't sleep. Waking up had been an experience in itself. Apparently, waking up from staying in a god-like beings realm ment major headaches. He tried using blood, but it didn't help much, and there was no way he was drinking that sedative stuff. ' _I can deal with a headache if it means not losing my memory. "_ _Numbs the nerves_ " _my backside._ ' He had waited for Latune to wake up, but she hadn't yet. He finally decided that it would be best to check their surroundings, knowing Doll would yell if he was needed.

He hadn't gone too far, when he heard a shout coming from behind. He slid his weapon from its hammer-sheath and ran back to Doll and Latune. When he arrived, he expected a large beast towering over Doll. What he didn't expect was the bunny he saw earlier, large claws on its paws and sharp looking teeth. It was leaping back and forth at its prey, the Doll. Doll was currently swatting it away with a stick she had found. But she was not meant for fighting, and it wasn't doing much. With a silent charge, Navlaan ran past Doll and sliced at the beast.

It split straight down the middle, nose to rear, and fell to the ground. Turning around, he saw as the small beast hit the ground, dissolving into black particles.

"Watch out!"

He whipped around, barely ducking as another rabbit soared over him. He pulled the doll behind himself, and circled around as to not be flanked. They were on all sides, hissing and swiping forward. He grabbed his blunderbuss and shot in a front of him, causing the rabbits there to be blown back. He turned and sliced at one that leaped at his side. With a turn, he smacked at one that had entered his personal space with his gun. He didn't follow up as two more were charging. He swatted one with the flat side of his blade, and shot the other. He reached into his bag, pulling out a small knife, and with precision accuracy that only comes with trial and error, he turned and threw it at a rabbit that was in mid jump. With a thump it flew back and hit a tree, sticking there until it disappeared. He looked around to see that there were at least ten out in the open, with more in hidden in the foliage.

' _Fast little buggers, aren't they? Come on Latune, wake up!'_ As he turned, he watched one of the creatures bound toward Doll. He swept forward, and impaled it on his sword. With a flick it was sent flying, already beginning to dissolve. He turned a little too late as a rabbit sprang for him. It landed and pushed him toward the ground, beginning to slice at his neck. He punched it off, and stood, quickly turning to cut down another rabbit that tried to join its kin. suddenly a single gunshot rang through the air. The beast went sprawling, and he turned to see Latune sitting up, gun aimed toward the animal. He quickly went to help her, but she was already on her feet.

 _Whoosh-chick_

Surprised, he turned to see Latune behind him, having decapitated a rabbit. With her now behind him and the Doll, he turned his back to them and began to hack and slash at the approaching rabbits. He grinned, finally able to concentrate on his field of vision without having to constantly check his surroundings. Suddenly he heard Latune speak.

"These things are as fast and slippery as the Cainhurst blood-worms, and they don't seem to stop either! We need to end this!."

Navlaan kept his face forward, and tried to remain as undistracted as possible while speaking. "I have an idea, but I hate using it!"

"Well you better learn to like it fast, because if you don't, we're going to die to RABBITS!"

"Fine, but when I say so, cover your ears! This is going to be loud!"

With that, he reached into his bag and pulled out the claw of a beast. It had dried blood on its stump, and five claws at the end of its short fingers. He wrapped his hands around it, crouched, yelled, "Now!" and squeezed. His mouth stretched past its normal limit, and he let loose a loud roar. The beasts around him reeled back as the sound burst into their ears. He stopped squeezing, and the sound died in his throat. Looking around, he saw the creatures were hopping away, many bouncing into trees and each other in their disoriented retreat. Clutching his jaw, he let out a low moan of pain as Latune and Doll stood. They were both shaken, and Latune turned to him in confusion and slight outrage.

"You waited that long to do that! You could have finished them in sec-" She stopped suddenly, and he looked up at her to see her horrified expression. He tried to speak, but his jaw wasn't responding. Blood dripped down his chin as he grabbed a vial and jabbed it into his neck. He felt as the sinew and muscles in in his mouth. After it finished he moved his jaw around, before speaking. "And _that_ is why I hate this thing. Anyway, there don't seem to be anymore around... Do you think those were Grimm?"

Surprisingly, it was Doll who spoke. "When it found me, I was waiting for Latune to awaken. It looked non-threatening, and I approached it. As soon as I was within range of biting, it snapped at me. I think it is meant to lure their victim into a false sense of security. I moved away, and it grew those awful talons. I was trying to keep them away from Latune when you arrived. So yes, I do believe that was one of the types of Grimm."

"I saw it earlier as well, or at least another one. It didn't approach me, and I didn't approach it. I assumed it was a part of the wildlife. Apparently that is not exactly the case."

Latune turned to both of them "We need to get going. Let's hope we don't run into that invader from before. The Great One said she wouldn't be near us, but I don't want to take chances."

With that, she walked off. Navlaan turned to Doll, and raised an eyebrow. She looked at him quizzically, and he knew she didn't get his silent question. He sighed and motioned for her to follow Latune. Latune would watch the front, and he would watch the rear.

They didn't need any more surprise attacks today.

***Line Break***

"Where are we going, exactly?"

"You speak as if you expect me to know."

"Well, you did stomp off in a random direction. I assumed you had a reason."

"I don't."

"Then why are we going this way."

Latune gave an irritated groan and turned to face him.

"Okay, my gut told me it was the right way. Happy?"

"...Yes, I always try to trust my gut. It usually works."

She gave a sigh and turned around continuing to walk. When she was a fair distance away, Doll turned to Navlaan. "Did you really mean that?"

"Umm...well it's not a bad thing to trust one's gut...her's just isn't getting us anywher-"

"Hey look! I found something!"

He turned to look in her direction, then looked back at Doll. She had the look of someone who would raise their eyebrow if they could. He sighed and answered Latune, "On our way!" and allowed Doll ahead of him once more.

When they caught up with her, they saw a destroyed looking city. There were very little colors, mostly grey, with grass and trees scattered around here and there. The buildings were crumbling or destroyed, with the ruble scattered everywhere. Navlaan looked in interest, and turned to the other two. "I think we may have found that 'Mountain Glenn' Moon Presence was talking about."

Latune nodded in agreement, but Doll's attention was fixed on one of the buildings as it crumbled a bit more. She turned to Navlaan and Latune, speaking in a slightly disturbed tone. "I don't like it here. It gives off a sense of hopelessness. If one of you wishes to explore, the other should come help me. I plan to build a campsite, and I cannot do it alone."

Navlaan, almost as much an explorer as he was an executioner, rose to this new challenge instantly. "I'll take a look around. Who knows, maybe there will be something of use around here."

The Doll nodded her head to him and started to walk back into the forest. She motioned for Latune to follow, and they entered the forest one after the other. With a contented sigh, Navlaan turned and walked towards the buildings.

***Line Break***

' _There is nothing here that is interesting. I regret my decision completely._ '

He had been looking around for what felt like hours. At first it had been fascinating, all the destroyed buildings that were nothing like Yharnam's own. These seemed to have order and structure, while Yharnam had winding roads and an array of variously shaped buildings. But after a while, it grew boring. The same repetitive buildings, with only minor differences. He had found little besides roaming packs of black animals, which he assumed by their looks they were more Grimm, destroyed buildings, and sand. He had snuck around the Grimm, unwilling to face off with a pack by himself, and had just been wandering the ruined city.

He decided that he would head back soon, as the city wasn't overly large and he had looked around most of it. As he turned the corner of another desolate structure, he heard the sound of gunshots. He immediately dodged back around the building and waited. The gunshots got louder and louder, and when he finally peaked around the corner he saw several armed men and women firing on a Grimm. They were wearing white and black clothing, with a red symbol on the chest. They all wore masks that seemed to be made of bone.

As they finished, a man turned around the corner with a sneer on his face. He had bright orange hair with a bowler hat on. He wore a white suit with red trim and had a cane in his hand. He swung it around casually as he approached the group. From his position, Navlaan could clearly hear everything he said.

"Well, would you look at that! That's the fourth pack that's slipped by your group in two days, Kalrin!"

"I'm sorry sir, we were preoccupied with helping another scouti-"

The man suddenly jabbed his cane forward, thrusting it straight into the woman's stomach. Unsurprisingly, the woman fell to her knees, clutching her stomach. He swiped it across her cheek, causing her to fall over to her side.

"I don't want any excuses. Our job here is to store as much dust as we can on that train, and we can't do that if we get overrun by Grimm! Understand sweetheart?"

The woman nodded slowly, mumbling something, and started sitting up. The man grabbed the end of his cane and lightly tapped her on the head with the handle.

"What was that sweetheart? I couldn't quite hear you."

She looked up at him and said in a clear, but pained, voice, "Yes sir."

"Good!" The man looked satisfied. Turning to the rest of the group, he smiled. With a tip of his hat he started to walk away. "Perry, Come on! We have places to go!"

As the man left, several members of the group went to help their apparent leader. She shooed away their helping hands and pointed in the opposite direction the man had left. Some looked hesitant, before they turned and left. With the woman all by herself, and the action over, Navlaan contemplated leaving for his camp when the woman spoke out.

"I know you're their, human. Come on out, I won't attack you."

Navlaan stood in shock, as if a child with their hand stuck in the sweet jar. ' _Human, what does she mean by that?_ " With a sigh, he slowly turned around the corner, weapon drawn and battle stance ready. The woman, Kalrin, was still on the ground with her hands resting besides her legs. She looked up at him skeptically, before letting out a small chuckle. "I assume by your face that you weren't expecting to be caught so easily."

Navlaan let out a nervous laugh, unease at the situation slowly settling in. "I guess you could say that..."

Her mouth set itself into a thin line, before speaking in a slightly hostile tone. "That's a strange accent you have there, and some old looking clothes. And by your attempt at sneaking, you're either not very smart or have never heard of faunus hearing before." She smirked, "Where are you from, _human_?"

' _Faunus, the great one mentioned them._ ' While he couldn't see any animalistic features, he knew now that she was one of them. Tensing up slightly at her tone, he slowly approached the woman. "That man, he didn't seem particularly friendly."

She laughed, as if he had just told a horrible joke and she was trying to keep herself from telling him off. When she finished, she spoke again in a bitter voice, "No shit, but what's it matter to someone like you? And you didn't answer me. Where are you from?"

"Nowhere you've heard of. And I believe I have the right to care for those who have been injured, so do you want my help or not?" He was getting irritated. She had no reason to be threatening toward him. He watched as her features hardened slightly, before she stood woozily. She didn't approach him, but she had gone into a defensive stance. "Why would I want the help of a _human?_ "

"What have you got against human? You don't hear me calling you faunus." He sheathed his weapon and leaned against the building he was next to. "You know, you really should respect your elders a little bit more, hmm?"

She chuckled again, this time with a bit more mirth put into it. "You're right, I should. But I won't, at least not you. No member of the White Fang would give a human respect. Your all the same, monsters in disguise. Now if you excuse me, I have my group to get back to. Leave now, or you will face the consequences." She pulled her weapon up, a strange looking rifle, and held it threateningly. Navlaan sighed and spoke.

"Just because I'm human, doesn't make me a monster. You might have hard feelings toward us, but you've never seen a true human monster." He narrowed his eyes slightly "Not everyone is alike, Kalrin. Remember that."

And before he saw her reaction, he turned and left.

***Line Break***

Navlaan arrived to the campsite quickly. As he entered the area, the Doll stood from a log she was sat on and bowed to him. "Welcome back, Navlaan. Did you find anything of interest?"

"There isn't much out there, but I did find something. There is a group out here calling themselves the White Fang who were killing Grimm. They were a group of those faunus the Great One was talking about, but they weren't exactly friendly to humans."

Latune looked up at him from the fire she was starting. "What, did they attack you or something?"

"No, but the one I spoke to seemed to think that humans were like scum beneath her boots. Oh that reminds me. Be careful see anyone with a bone-like mask and a white tabard with a red symbol. They are probably part of the group, and I have learned that some of them have extremely sensitive hearing."

Latune smirked up at him. "You got caught, huh?"

"I will not dignify that with an answer." He yawned, and started to sit down by a tree. "Wake me if you need something." And he promptly leaned against the tree, and after several minutes silence, he fell asleep.

***Line Break***

 **Hey Lads and Lasses!**

 **So if you were wondering, the rabbits were inspired by**

 **the Rabbit of Caerbannog, from Monty Python's Holy Grail. I just made it black and gave it claws with the teeth.**

 **It may just be me, but this was not as interesting a chapter. But I did like writing some of it. I like writing Torchwick, and I think I did a fairly good job writing him.**

 **Thanks for your support, and I'll see you on Sunday.**

 **(Edit: Changed some words here and there, altered a bit of the conversation Navlaan has with Kalrin. Grammar.)**


	7. The White Fang and Chester

**Hello there lads and lasses! This story almost has twenty followers, so thanks to you all! Now...**

 ** _ARE YOU READY FOR SOME STORY DEVELOPMENT!_**

 **On with the chapter!**

***Line Break***

The White Fang and Chester

POV: Jazabelle

***Line Break***

"You have such a beautiful voice, you know?"

"Oh, I know."

 _Shing-*gasp*_

"And that is the beautiful sound of death. Hmm, _Sweet dreams_."

Jazabelle let go of the man after whispering into his ear, letting him slide to the ground. With a look of disgust, she turned toward the rectangular building she was trying to enter. She had been caught by a guard, but was easily able to get him away from the others. It helped that all of the guards were wearing masks, and she was able to convince him that her mask was simply altered. Her outfit was slightly harder to explain, so instead she got him off topic, telling him things that any man like him would love to hear.

She had woken up in an alleyway of some advanced city. She had immediately looked for the coward, but he wasn't there, and she needed to get out of the open. The people found her attire _frightening_. She had been quick to delve deeper into the cities underground, and had learned about many things.

Only three interested her; The Grimm, the people, and Dust. She had gotten information on the first two, and she now desired the symbol of power known as Dust.

' _Roman Torchwick, Master Thief and currently excellent source of dust._ ' This guy had a reputation in the underground. His name was everywhere, and he relishes in that fact. Currently employed to an unknown employer, with a little side-kick that loves frozen treats. He was working with a group called the White Fang. ' _And he should currently be away, leaving the dust for the taking._ '

She looked around, finding a window that would take a simple climb to get to. She backed away, and sprinted toward the wall under the window. When she was only a couple feet away, she jumped and reached up. Her hands grabbed a ridge in the building, and she began to climb like a spider, quickly and quietly crawling up the wall. She swiftly made it to the window and peered in. It was lit by large, hanging lights that shone down like the sun. She opened the window and looked around for a place she could silently drop down onto. Several large, metal boxes laid below her and with a quick prep, she dropped. A slight _ting_ sounded, but it was otherwise silent.

There were some people running around in the building, but the majority were silent. She looked off the edge of the boxes, and found it to be dark. She dropped again, and began to sneak her way through the building. She wasn't looking for anything in particular, just the amount of people in the building. She couldn't take all the dust, obviously, but she could take as much as she could carry. Her satchel was rather large, so there would be no need to skip out on anything she wanted.

As she came close to a stairway, she heard a male voice laughing and a female one telling said male off. She looked around quickly, and began to climb them. They were short, but they were out in the open. When she made it to the door, she put her ear to it and listened. There seemed to only be two occupants, and hopefully they wouldn't be facing the door. ' _Not that I wouldn't kill them without a sweat, but it sounds so tiring right now._ ' And she opened the door as silently as she could.

There were two people, as she thought, the woman, a teen girl by the looks, was dark skinned and green haired. The man, a teen boy, was rather light in skin tone and had grey, almost silvery hair. He was on the table, messing with what seemed to be a prosthetic leg, and the girl was glaring at him. Or at least, she was, before Jazabelle walked into the room, right into her line of sight. She stared for several seconds, which was enough for Jazabelle to pull out her pistol and take aim.

"Now would you look at this. You two don't look anything like the group downstairs. Not much for uniform? Or..." She smirked behind the mask, and let some playfulness slip through her voice, "Are you two having a little fun?"

The man jumped, whirling at her and stopping at the sight of the gun, while the woman looked horrified at her comment. "Me... with him? Oh Hell no!"

"Ah-ah-aaah. Keep still, no need to waste my bullets. So here's how this is going to work. You two are going to sit there. I'm going to knock you out, and you'll never see me again. Hmm?"

The man turned the rest of his body slowly, and smirked back at her. "You see that would probably work, but we have businesses to rob, people to kill, so we can't really be delayed by your agenda. And anyway, you'd have to get through our aura to 'knock us out'."

Jazabelle didn't let her voice slip, but that was a surprise. ' _Aura?_ _Something to help them from getting hurt maybe...guess we'll just have to find out.'_

"Ooh, you're right...I guess I should get started on that." And she shot at his chest.

 _Ooof_

He doubled over, clearly in pain, but there was no blood. ' _T_ _hat must be the aura. Useful, annoying, but surpassable.'_ And she followed up her assault. With little effort, she brought up her twinblade and thrust it into him. The girl behind him reached for her back, and pulled out two strange pistols as she hit the boy. Or hit an inch from his stomach. She couldn't actually hit him, but it seemed to affect him. He flew off the table, and she turned to the girl as she was beginning to fire. With relative ease, she dodge between the bullets and slashed at her chest. The girl brought up one gun and blocked it, while the other shot again into her side. It entered and exited swiftly, and she didn't even flinch.

"Ooh a feisty one, I can tell. Let's change that. _'"_ Jazabelle grinned, and swiftly removed her blade from the gun. Apparently not expecting the bullet to enter her flesh, the girl didn't expect her to follow up immediately with another strike, this one to the leg. She stumbled, and another strike went to her stomach. With relative ease, Jazabelle kept the girl on her toes, and as her strikes got closer and closer to the girl's skin, she began to panic. With a wild strike, she slashed at Jazabelle and hit a hard set of material. Stunned, Jazabelle watched as the girl moved back to her friend, who was just getting up.

Jazabelle snapped her swords together and brought up her pistol, taking aim at the girl's head. She fired and the girl went flying back. The boy rushed at her, and he brought his leg up for several quick strikes. She dodged all but the last, blocking it instead. She leaned in and spoke to the boy. "Don't meet many people who use their legs as their weapons. What's your reasoning?"

He smirked, "Surprises."

"Surpris-"

He shoved his foot forward, and she swung him away just as a bullet exited from his foot. Intrigued, she sliced forward twice, both times to the neck. It stopped the blades, but it didn't stop their momentum. As he was disoriented, she struck again at his stomach, pushing him back. Firing a bullet, she pushed him to the ground. He quickly got back up as the girl recovered. Jazabelle spoke to them as they watched her movements.

"Having fun yet? I am, your both full of surprises. How about I pull out my surprise, no?" She pulled out a small, wrapped up ball from her bag. Unwrapping it, she grabbed the pellet inside.

Smiling, she looked to the pair.

"Know what this is?" They both glared at her. Shrugging, she continued. "This is a Beast Pellet. Once ingested, it blurs the line between a man, or in my case woman, and the beast inside us all. It was banned a number of years ago, but the feeling of euphoria it creates is simply too intoxicating for some to give up." She popped it into her mouth. "Let's see how intoxicating it's famed to be."

Her eyes darkened, pupils dilating as power coursed through her. She needed more, she WANTED more. Looking toward the two in the room, and knowing they couldn't give it to her without a fight, she turned and burst out of the door. Looking around, she found the nearest guard staring at her with surprise. Unlinking her blades with a snap, she charged forward and slashed at him. Blood flew as he screamed, alerting others to their location. She didn't care, it was just more blood for her to bathe herself in. Slashing across his neck, she turned to the next person. A woman who was yelling for more people to come.

Growling, She stabbed forward and impaled the woman on her swords. She gasped as she was lifted into the air, before the blades in her stomach were twisted and ripped out. Relishing in the blood, she turned and looked as several more guards arrived. With heightened senses, she was hyper aware of the bodies around her. She leapt forward, slashing and stabbing as many limbs and bodies as she could reach, maiming but not killing at this point for the most amount of blood she could possibly get out of them. Dodging around, she was rarely hit, but each one made her stumble. She would retaliate instantly, immediately numbing the pain. She was close, she knew, but soon the pellet would wear off. Looking around quickly, she spotted the stunned faces of the boy and girls she had originally attacked. With a wolf-like howl, she charged forward, intent on making the two bleed.

She was stopped short by a large amount of fire entering her vision. She jumped back, lowering herself into a defensive stance. Fire was not a good thing. Fire hurt, fire made her suffer. She was prepared to escape, when more fire appeared around her. She was surrounded by walls of fire. Growling, she looked toward a new person.

A woman with a fiery look stalked toward her slowly, with several men and woman of the White Fang surrounding her. Feeling her blood high slowly dying down, she stood straighter, hands never leaving her weapons, and she looked defiantly at the woman.

"And who do we have here?" She was safe from the fire, or at least safer than normal, in the armor she was wearing. She couldn't let herself be intimidated by this woman.

The woman seemed to smirk, as if she had said something funny, and spoke in a sultry tone not unlike her own. "Who I am, is not important. However, after killing and maiming many of the Fang, I think I have a more than a right to know who you are."

She grinned. She already liked this woman, and as the beast blood settled down, she grew less afraid of the walls of fire arounds her. With a small curtsy, she decided to introduce herself. "I am Jazabelle. Jazabelle Lynch. And might I say, what a wonderful little place you have here. I am dearly sorry for these men and women, you see I was... _demonstrating,_ for those two individuals over there. I simply got caught up in the fun."

The woman had a smile on her face now, one that seemed truly genuine. "Is that so. Well, I'm sure that we can be understanding if is was just for a little _fun,_ isn't that right?" at this, she turned toward the members of the White Fang, who slowly put down their weapons in favor for helping their fellow members. "That's what I thought. Come, why don't we go sit down and have a drink. I'm sure we could have an interesting conversation."

Jazabelle thought for a moment, watching as the fire slowly faded away, and looked at the carnage she had wrought. She looked back at the woman and the other two. They looked wary of her, but the woman seemed interested in her, and she could already sense the ulterior motives in her tone.

' _Oh I really like her._ ' "What did you have in mind?"

She smirked "Come, we have much to discuss."

***Line Break***

POV: Navlaan

***Line Break***

"So, let me get this straight. you were looking in the woods. And you just happen to see it in the trees. And you decided that instead of just bringing it here, you'd stay there and keep it company. Is that right?"

The Doll nodded, clearly happy with her decision.

"There is no feasible way to stay angry at you, is there?"

Latune smirked "It's because she's the most innocent thing that has ever graced human presence."

*sigh* "Yes, I reckon you are right. I just can't believe that it came with us. It was one with the invader, but..."

The Doll looked at him "Navlaan, you know you like them. You just won't admit it. It certainly likes you."

She held out her hands, and in them she held a little messenger that had _apparently_ hitched a ride with them. The doll had been talking with it and Latune before they had left the dream, and it never left the Doll's side. He sighed again and reached out an arm. It happily leapt onto the outstretched limb and crawled up to his shoulder. It sat there, its legs dangling down, and looked extremely pleased with itself. "You're going to be as long as possible, aren't you?" It nodded. "Of course."

He looked toward the other two, and they both were watching him in amusement. "What, he wants to be there. I'm not going to stop him, so long as he doesn't get in my way." He turned and walked away. He walked through the tree line and made it about thirty feet. He then turned to the messenger and frowned. "Listen, you may like me, and I can tolerate you. But if you're going to be here, I need you to do something for me."

He pointed toward the cities direction. "In that city is a group called the White Fang. They don't like us much, but there is one person there I need you to keep an eye on. He has orange hair, a hat on his head, and wields a cane. He isn't a good person, and I need you to watch him and that group. If any of them get close to our campsite, along with those black animals called Grimm, tell us. We might not escape them, but we can be ready for them. Understand?"

It took a moment to take it in, and it nodded it's head slowly. He smiled, and looked down at it with a curious glance. "If you're going to be here, you need a name. Do you have one?"

It nodded excitedly, and reached into its hat. Pulling out a piece of paper, it looked at it for a second, and handed it to him.

' _My name is Chester, friend.'  
_

"Chester, huh? Has a nice ring. Okay, Chester. You've got your job, go on. I'll tell them you went exploring to the city. Which isn't really wrong."

It nodded and jumped from his shoulder into the trees. With a tip of its hat, it was gone.

"What a nice little fellow."

***Line Break***

' _I'm going to kill that little rat. I told it to tell us. I TOLD IT!'_

Navlaan grumbled irritably as he dodged another swipe from the black monster in front of him. It looked more like the beasts of Yharnam, but it acted very different. It stood on hind legs instead of all fours, and it was much faster with it's attacks. He slashed at its claws as they came forward again, and they came clean off. With it preoccupied, he stabbed forward and jabbed into its skull. It died on the spot and he kicked it off his blade.

There weren't many, but they had pushed them closer to the city. Protecting the Doll was his priority, and if he had to give ground to do that he would. Latune was a few yards ahead of him, much faster and more damaging in her attacks. He dodged back as another claw entered his vision. With a crouch, he grabbed his hammer from its holster and smashed it down on the beast. It fell to the ground, but he couldn't follow up as another took its place.

Navlaan groaned and dodged back, looking toward the Doll. On her shoulder rested the object of his annoyance, "Oh finally decided to show up, huh Chester? What happened to keeping watch!"

It brought up its hand and pointed toward the city. Following it's finger, Navlaan saw a group of people rushing toward them. People with white masks.

"Oh God dammit!"

Turning back to the beasts, he dodged under a swipe and called toward Latune. "Back up, we've got company!" He dodged again and stabbed forward, straight into its gut. Slashing outward, he almost cut it in half. Leaving its dissolving corpse, he turned to the Doll and pulled her toward the tree line. The group had reached them and had began to fire at the Grimm. Outmatched, the creatures began to slink away into the shadows.

Hiding the Doll behind him, Navlaan hefted his hammer above his shoulder, prepared to strike if necessary. Half of the group members brought up their guns at him, and the other half aimed at Latune. One of the group approached slowly, and he saw with surprise that it was the woman, Kalrin. Her mouth was set in a thin line, and this close he could see bumps under her hair.

' _Is that her extra feature?_ '

She looked irritated, and after looking at him for several seconds, she circled around him to look at the Doll. He tensed, and those with guns aimed at him tensed as well. She looked confused at the Doll's appearance, before turning and walking toward Latune. He let out a breath and focused on the people around him. Some of them looked unsure about their actions, and some looked ready to shoot him without a second thought.

"Stand down." Navlaan turned to Kalrin, her voice hard and commanding. "They are coming with us. I'm sure Torchwick would have a fit if we don't have a good excuse for going off course. Eris, Lyra, take their weapons. Persephone, tie them up."

Latune scoffed."And what, you think we'll just let you take us?"

Kalrin turned to her again. "You will, or I'll be forced to shoot you. I'm sure that at least half of this group wouldn't hesitate to fire on _Humans_ "

Many in the group, about seven, chuckled and laughed. Kalring turned to them. "That's enough now." She turned to Navlaan. "Weapons, now. Don't make a scene."

Navlaan looked around, and sighed. No escape without someone getting hurt or killed. He lifted his hammer and slammed it down hilt up onto the road. The ground cracked in several places, and many of the group backed up. Grabbing his blunderbuss, he set it sideways on the hammer and looked to Latune. "Put it down. We're outmatched." She looked like she was going to disregard him, but he glared at her. "Now."

She looked down, agitated, and sheathed her sword. taking it off her belt, she handed it to one of the White Fang members, and put her pistol in her other hand. Kalrin looked to the one named Persephone, and she went forward with several pairs of odd looking objects. Going up to Latune first, she held out the object.

"Hands."

Latune looked at her angrily and shoved her hands forward. The objects latched around her wrists, and she stood dumbfounded as they secured themselves. Persephone walked over to him and he held out his hands calmly. It was a bit jolting, having the things latch to his wrists, but he tried not to be surprised. Finally, she turned to the Doll, and motioned for her hands. Doll held them out, and the woman stared.

"Umm, ma'am?"

"What?"

"These aren't going to work for this one."

Kalrin walked over. "Why not?"

"Her hands are made of wood."

"...What, like a prosthetic?"

Persephone turned to her. "No, like actual wood." She turned back to the Doll "Move your hands around."

The Doll complied slowly, and the woman turned back to Kalrin. "See?"

Kalrin stood slightly dumbfounded, "Do that again."

"I would appreciate it if you didn't order around my companion."

They both turned to Navlaan, and Kalrin slowly walked up to him. "I can do whatever the hell I want at the moment. You're my prisoners, and I damn well want to see how she did it."

"She's made of wood."

"...What?"

"I said. She. Is. Made. Of. Wood. And she can clearly answer your questions, but I would like it if you stopped forcing her."

Navlaan stared calmly down at the woman, as if daring her to object. She did. "There will be a lot of forcing today. Get used to it." She turned back to her group. "Someone get me some rope!"

She turned back to him. "The White Fang doesn't much like humans. Be glad I found you, or you'd be dead where you stand."

And she walked away.

***Line Break***

 **This didn't feel right while I wrote it, and I'll probably go back and edit it.**

 **Lads and Lasses, I'm truly scared for the characters of RWBY, but I have so much material to work with now when I get to volume 3, so I don't really know how I feel right now. That episode truly was al- _arm_ -ing, wasn't it?**

 **See ya Friday, Bye!**

 **(Edit: I added a small fight scene with Mercury, and made a few adjustments to different conversations.)**


	8. Roman Torchwick

**Hello there, lads and lasses.**

 **Welcome to another chapter, in which I introduce one of my favorite characters.**

 **Oh and there's some plot in there too, if you're into that sorta thing.**

***Line Break***

Roman Torchwick

POV: Latune

***Line Break***

' _If he does it again, I'm going to kill him. I'll choke him out, and I'll use his body as a shield. Then I'll beat Navlaan to death with his bullet riddled body._

Latune growled as she felt another push from the man behind her. He was getting on her already frazzled nerves, and the staring from half the group wasn't helping. Their clothes weren't exactly modern, apparently, and their captors seemed to be curious. In an attempt to curb some of her anger, she turned her attention to Navlaan, the source of all her frustrations for the past several days. She glared at the back of his head, hoping she could kill him with her stare alone.

She about whirled around when the man pushed her again. In a low voice, she hissed. "Do it again, I dare you. See what happens!"

The man rose to the bait, and shoved her forward again. She went rigid, and slowly turned to him. He was smirking, and she could see through the mask the twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "What are you going to do. Stab me?"

She grinned savagely. "I was thinking about strangulation, but that could work. It would be easy, I've done it before. I'd simply kick you in the crotch, and as you fall to your knees I would take my hand, and shove it through your chest. And I'll pick up you're dying body as you sit there, pondering your useless, pathetic life, and how it inevitably led to you getting a hand stuck through your chest. And as your friends fire on you, my meat shield, I'll beat them all to death with your sorry excuse of a corpse. Finally, I'll set your bodies aflame and watch as you burn. How does that sound?"

He was stunned, she could see it. Looking around, she saw several others had stopped with them, all looking at her. She turned and followed Navlaan, a satisfied smile of her face. It may not have been his death, but it was certainly an alright substitute.

Eventually they approached a fairly average building, with several guards placed around and on it. The ones on the building seemed to have firearms trained on them, while the rest watched curiously. The leading woman, Kalrin she had heard, walked up to another man dressed in similar garb. They had a small discussion that she couldn't hear, before they were beckoned forward. Normally, she wouldn't have done anything but glare, but she knew they would just push her forward. She was the last to come forward, after Navlaan, and she could feel the gazes of many on her.

The man walked up to the Doll, staring at her with interest. The Doll, being who she was, bowed to him. He sneered at her, and looked like he was going to smack her. But he held back, and moved to Navlaan, who remained calm and unmoving under his gaze. The man frowned, and moved to Latune. She sneered at him, but said nothing. He seemed to find that amusing. He turned back to Kalrin, and frowned again.

"Where did you find them again?"

"They were on the outskirts, beyond the old apartment buildings. They were fighting Grimm, and I thought we could both capture them and clear up the streets a bit more."

"You know that area is beyond your jurisdiction, right?"

Kalrin sighed, looking annoyed. "Yes I know that, Perry, but I'm sure they make up for it."

' _So she's done something wrong. I hope she gets some sort of punishment, serves her right for taking my weapons.'_ As Latune reveled in the thought, the man neared the buildings door. After knocking several times, the door opened and he called to them. "All right, one at a time. You, silver armor girl, come first. Then the one in maid clothes, then stoic face."

She walked forward toward the door, and it shut on her. A green light traveled up her body, starting at her boots. When it finished, the door opened again and she was pushed forward. Growling, she turned and watched as the doors shut on the Doll. It finished quickly and the doors opened. She looked rather shaken, but was otherwise fine. She came forward, and Navlaan entered last. His took as long as hers, and when it was done Perry and Kalrin followed. They walked right through, and the man walked right up to Navlaan and held out his hands.

"If you would hand over that satchel, that would make this a lot easier." He turned to Latune. "You too lady."

Navlaan handed his over after a second of hesitation, but Latune just glared. he walked right up to her and punched her in the gut. As she bent over, Perry grabbed her shoulder and held her up.

"None of that now. If you follow my instructions, no one gets hurt." He smirked "Much."

Latune snarled, and was about to object further when she saw Navlaan's face. It was like he was pleading with his eyes alone. She sighed and handed over the bag. Satisfied, the man turned and walked them over to another door. Pressing a button next to it, they waited several moments before it opened. It was a rather large room, with several buttons on the wall. He walked in and motioned for them to follow. Navlaan entered first, and the thing on his wrist gave off a little beep. He was suddenly dragged to the wall, and as he struggled she saw that the thing was stuck to the wall. The man motioned again, and she walked forward, bracing herself.

The pull was very strong, and she couldn't hold herself for very long before it pulled her in. It was slightly disorientating, and she could only turn her head and watch as the Doll and Kalrin entered. With nothing on her arms but a simple rope, the Doll merely stood by Navlaan, and the man shut the door with another button. The room lurched, and she about fell over in surprise. The Doll did, and as Navlaan tried to help her, Kalrin went over and pulled her up.

"Watch yourself, don't need to break anything from a small fall."

' _Why is she so...sympathetic? She doesn't act like that man in the slightest, and yet she still captured us..._ '

There was no more time to think on it, as the door opened again. The pressure on her wrists suddenly relaxed, and she stumbled. Catching herself, she looked up and out the door, and her jaw about dropped. A huge cavern filled with large crates, people, and many things she couldn't actually name. There was a small group just outside the room, and as they walked out, the group stepped up. She could see that several were holding their weapons, and Perry handed the group their bags. He continued to walk through the cavern, and they were forced to follow. As they passed, several of the group jeered and snarled at them.

' _Tough crowd. What's got them riled up?_ ' As they continued to walk, she saw more people, many with strange additions to the human anatomy. ' _Faunus. Navlaan mentioned them, didn't he?_ '

Eventually they made it to a long looking contraption, almost like a train, but much more advanced looking than any she heard of. At the back was a man dressed in a white suit and bowler hat. He held a cane, and his hair was a vibrant orange. As their guide and captor approached him, the man called out what she assumed was his name.

"Roman, you got company."

Roman turn and seemed to smile, more like a mixture between a sneer and a smirk. When he spoke it reminded her of bratty nobles who thought they had more power than they did.

"Ah, Perry." He frowned when he noticed the group of humans and doll. "Well, would you look at this. A group of people captured, by you I assume Kalrin, and brought straight to me. I'm absolutely flattered." He turned to Navlaan. "And just who are you, old man? Your clothes aren't exactly this century. And," He grabbed at a of the weapon one of the White Fang members were holding. It was Latune's Katana "Your weapons are just as primitive, though kept in excellent condition. These would make quite a bit of lien if sold to the right collectors."

He turned to them. "So the question is, why are you using them? Anyone and their mother can get weapons more modern than this. What's your excuse?"

Latune frowned. How advanced were these people? "They may be old, but they can sure as hell beat anything that comes their way. Plus," Latune smirked. "Ours have a few _special_ additions."

The man turned to her and chuckled. "I don't see anything besides a scabbard and a hilt. Unless this things splits into another sword, you can't do much with it."

"That's what you think. Go ahead, press the symbol on the side of the sheath." He looked for said symbol, but didn't press it.

"What's it going to do?"

"You'll just have to find out, or you could let me demonstrate."

He thought for a moment, then turned to his right. holding a hand to his mouth, he called out. "If she tries anything funny, start shooting!" He turned back to Perry, held out his hand, and Perry handed over a key. Walking up to her, he unlocked the thing on her wrist and handed the weapon over. "Make a wrong move, and you'll be on the floor faster than you can say 'Sniper'."

She glared and grasped the weapon in her hands. Grinning at its familiar weight, she hooked the sheath to her belt and looked up. "You'll want to stand back, this is going to be messy." And before they could question her, she pressed the symbol and waited.

She felt as the weight increased, and a twinge of pain slowly ate at her stomach area. Several seconds later, she slowly pulled the weapon from the scabbard and held it in a offencive stance, as if waiting for someone to attack. Of course, the majority of the group around her were mesmerized and disgusted by the coagulated blood on the sword. She let it sit for a second, dripping to the floor, before the pain became more intense and she flicked her wrist. Blood spilled to the floor, and she replaced the weapon to her scabbard. If she weren't surrounded, she would have attacked.

But she was surrounded, and attacking wasn't an option.

Roman looked from the blood, to the sword, to her. He looked disgusted more than anything, and after several second he spoke "What was that, did you stab yourself or something? Cause lady, if that's what your blood looks like, you need some help."

She scoffed, "It's called bloodtinge. It's the acidity of your blood, and it helps with the clotting you saw on my sword. Let's just say it makes the sword take on some...additional qualities."

He looked at her, before resting his head on his hand and shaking it. He walked up to her and ripped the weapon out of her hands. After attaching the device back onto her wrists, he looked toward Perry, "Take them somewhere secure. I don't need anymore distractions, so just make sure they don't get out." He turned to Kalrin "You are going to follow me. We have some things to discuss about your recent _detours_ when you go scouting."

He turned and called to the train. "Neo! Get out here!"

A small woman with brown, pink, and white hair stepped out behind Roman. She was wearing a white jacket with a black corset, black pants, and a pair of whitish grey boots with very tall heels. She held a parasol in her hands and she was smirking. "Ah, there you are. Get these three to somewhere secure, and make sure they get extra special _treatment._ Then I need your help. We need to meet with our employer." He motioned for them to get going. "And be quick! We don't have all day and it's already getting dark." He then turned to Kalrin and began discussing things with her she couldn't hear.

' _Special treatment? This cannot be good.'_ She looked to the girl, Neo, and watched as she started to walk away. Cautiously, she waited for Navlaan to follow before following herself. The Doll was behind her, and Perry was in the back. They slowly made their way through the cavern, eventually making it to a building that looked like a box with windows and a door. Entering, she saw that it was empty except for a trap door on the floor.

Neo led them over to the door and opened it. She could see a stairway that led to a long hallway. Going down, she saw a door at the end of the corridor. When they finally made it, Neo opened it and let them in. As the Doll entered, the girl suddenly shattered into a million pieces.

Before Latune could react, Neo suddenly reappeared next to her and slammed her in the head with her parasol. Her vision blurred, and Neo swung again, hitting her in the stomach. As she fell to her knees, the last thing she saw was Navlaan trying to protect the Doll, and she heard someone yelling, before her vision blurred and she hit the ground.

***Line Break***

POV: Doll

***Line Break***

" _Latune!_ "

"Doll, Get back!"

 _Thwack!_

The Doll watched as Navlaan pushed through the pain, attempting to stop Neo. He stood in front of her, blocking her view of the small girl. She watched as his head snapped up, and he fell back.

" _Navlaan!_ " She kneeled down, trying to help him in any way she could. She looked up to Neo, who was grinning widely, before she held her parasol like a club and swung down. Navlaan jerked up, before falling back and hitting the floor. The Doll tried to drag him back, but she couldn't lift him. The girl approached her as she continued to struggle, before she reached down and grabbed the Doll's wrists.

Dragging her over to the wall, she grabbed her rope and tied her to several metal bars sticking out of the wall. Neo smiled and patted her cheek. She then bowed, and once again shattered.

The slam of a door sounded through the room, before the lights went out, plunging the Doll into darkness. Her vision eventually adjusted, and she waited several moments to see if it would get better. When it didn't, she began to pull on the rope. There was very little slack, and she couldn't stand without bending her arms at an awkward angle. When she realized it wasn't doing anything, she stopped and sat.

' _Navlaan...'_ She almost smiled ' _You're gone once again, a_ _nd I'm the one who has to wait until you come back, as always._ ' She sighed. Looking up, she saw nothing but a small grate in the ceiling. With both Latune and Navlaan out, she couldn't do much more than wait. She had sent Chester away after the Grimm attack, and she knew he was out there. He'd find them eventually, and until then she would wait.

As she always did.

***Line Break***

 **I honestly had fun with this chapter. A little more Torchwick, Doll's perspective, a _little_ Neo. (See what I did there?)**

 **Anyway, this was a little bit of a filler chapter, and it was a bit shorter than some of my previous ones. But I've decided something. If you haven't noticed, I've been changing my schedule for uploading a lot. I'm figuring out what works for me, and right now I think I'll do one to two chapters a week. I'll see how it works, and we'll go from there.**

 **Anyway, I'll see you lads and lasses on tuesday. Bye!**

 **(Edit: Just grammar and some words here and there.)**


	9. The Unlikely Spy

**Well...shit.**

 **Hey lads and lasses, If you've seen the new episode of RWBY then you know what I mean. Ozpin is gone. Arkos sailed and instantly sank. Everything's gone to shit...**

 **Fuck Cinder. Fuck the female narrator. Fuck that Salem woman. (She and the Female narrator may or may not be the same person.)**

 **Over twenty followers! Thank you, I didn't think the story would do this well. You lads and lasses are awesome!**

 **And yes, I know I said I would post this on Tuesday (and I planned on it), I also said that I was working out a schedule that works for me. I apologize for this being late, but there isn't much I could do about it.**

 **ON WITH THE CHAPTER!**

***Line Break***

A Strange Perspective

POV: Chester

***Line Break***

Chester had watched from the trees as the people in the white clothing took his friends. These were the people Navlaan warned him about, the White Fang. These people, a man with a cane, and the black creatures, Grimm.

He had failed, he had been too worried about all the White Fang in the city that he hadn't watched for the Grimm in the forest, and now they were paying for his failure.

These people were very strange. A lot of them gave off a hateful presence. But some of them, the woman in front and a few others, gave off an uncertainty, like they didn't want to be there.

He was going to go with them, jump down on someone's shoulders and join them. But the Doll had glanced up at him, and the look in her eyes made him stop. He couldn't tell exactly what it meant, but he got the message.

' _Don't move._ '

And so he didn't. He stayed in the tree and watched as his friends disappeared behind the buildings in the area. It was only when they were gone did he start following, crawling along the structures and keeping his distance. He watched as Latune, his friend's savior, turn and threaten one of the people. He watched as they made it to a building surrounded by the people in white. A man walked up and looked at each of his friends, before they started to walk into the building. The man knocked and the door opened. Latune entered first and the door shut behind her.

He was scared for a second, and started to panic when it opened again. Latune looked fine, and Doll entered next. After her was Navlaan, and finally the man and woman. The door shut, and he waited several minutes to see if it would open. When it didn't, he decided to get a closer look. He started to climb into the building he was hiding behind through a hole in its wall. He entered a long hallway, with metal things on the walls. From what he could tell, nothing had been in it for a long time. There were many destroyed books, fallen metal things, and bones. It was also crumbling, with many of the walls filled with holes. It was both peaceful and eerie.

Finally he exited through a broken glass window, and looked at the much closer building, just across the wide black path that travelled throughout the city. The doors of the building had opened, and the group that had captured his friends were entering it. When the final one had entered, the doors shut again and the people outside the building began to look around. They had large guns, and from the times he had almost been caught during his scouting trips, he knew if they found him he was a goner. He didn't like to do it, but he would have to enter one of his portals to get across. However just as he was about to summon the foggy portal, a soft noise entered his ears.

Curious, he turned and watched as a giant grey beast appeared in his vision. It held its thin, wing-like appendages straight out, and it had some sort of long barrel at the end of them. He crouched down, fearful, as this thing got closer and closer. Soon it was very near, and the thing was landing on top of the building where his friends had been taken. The sound it had made died away, until it was quiet again. He lowered his head tiredly, and summoned the portal.

It was very cold, and very dark in the portals, and he felt that they were too lonely to use unless needed. Working up the courage, he slowly walked into it, and it rippled like water. With a sad sigh, he dived under and immediately thought of where he wanted to go. He ended up sticking sideways out of the building. Satisfied, he exited it and shook his head, trying to get the cold to go away. He climbed up the building, till he was at the edge of the roof, and he peeked his head over it.

Closer up, the beast had an almost metallic sheen, and it's stomach area had a hole in it. There were two men inside, both with helmets covering their heads and goggles around their eyes. He realized that this thing wasn't actually alive, but was something made by humans.

Slowly, he pulled himself up and began approaching the thing. When he made it to the base, he jumped up and grabbed onto the side. Pulling himself up, he looked inside to see several seats, almost like a carriage, and was about to climb onto them when two people entered his vision. One was short, had strange hair, and held an umbrella in her hands. The next person made him stop.

 _Orange hair._

 _Hat on head._

 _Holding a cane._

It was the man Navlaan had warned him about, and they were both approaching him steadily. Thinking quickly, he dived under the seats where several strands of cloth hung down. Hoping it would be enough to hide him, he watched as the two entered. One by stepping up, and the other was suddenly there, right above him with her legs dangling. Both the doors on the carriage like thing they were in closed, and the soft noise was back. He felt like he was slowly being pushed into the floor, before he lurched backwards.

It took several moments, but he was slowly able to sit back up, and when he did he realized that the man was talking. He focused and listened as the man seemed to rant to the woman.

"Really though! An old guy, a weird girl who's blood is apparently acid, and a woman who looks more like a doll, and all of them wearing clothing not even from this century! Who are these people?!"

There were several moments of silence, and the man continued. "I mean it's not like they can actually be useful to us. I don't know _why_ that idiot faunus is just digging her own grave at this point."

Several more moments of silence, and the man spoke again. "Oh don't give me that, they would have been perfectly fine if she hadn't helped." More silence. "Okay, they probably would have died, but who cares?"

More silence. Was this woman mute? The man with the cane laughed. "Okay...okay, who _important_ would care?"

Silence, and the man seemed to be pleased. "That's what I thought." He sighed "We'll deal with them when we get back. Now if you don't mind, I'm tired and this trip is going to take a while." And the man laid down on the other side bench, with his hat covering his eyes. Five minutes later, he was breathing softly, and the woman above him was swinging her legs back and forth, and he could feel that she was bored.

Slowly, Chester moved to the side to avoid the legs that had about hit him seven times. He let out a sigh and leaned against the wall, and started to think. If these people had his friends, then logically if he followed them he could learn something helpful, like how to save his friends. Then he could show that he was useful, and not just a screw up.

Filled with determination over the fact that he could right his wrong, he adjusted his hat and waited.

***Line Break***

He felt it as the vehicle stopped moving, his body slowly leaning forward until it had stopped completely. As they landed, the doors opened smoothly and the girl got up, walking over to the man. Pushing his shoulder, the man let out a groan and turned over. She slapped his shoulder and he was up instantly, his cane thrust out and barely missing the girl. Or rather, the girl moved her head a few inches to avoid the hit. The man groaned again and slowly stood. placing his hat back on his head, he walked over to the door and jumped down. The girl suddenly shattered, and looking out the door for himself, Chester saw that she was next to the man. It was dark, and they were at what looked to be a large, rectangular building with a large door.

As they walked toward the building, its door slid open to reveal a boy with grey hair, a woman with green, and a woman dressed in bones. With a jolt, he realized that this was the same person who had invaded Navlaan. The same one he had gotten Latune to help his friends with.

If he wasn't scared before, he was certainly now.

The other two seemed to be wary of the woman in bones, but she seemed very relaxed. Looking around carefully, Chester saw more of the White Fang. Some of them had guns, but most of them were just working with large boxes. Deciding that he could make it if he was careful, he jumped out and began to slowly creep his way to the building. It wasn't too hard, as there were boxes everywhere.

Finally, he made it to the entrance of the building just as the door was shutting. He entered and quickly looked for a place to hide. Entering the shadows made by more of the metal boxes, he followed the people at a distance. Everyone seemed to be giving the girl in bones a lot of space, but she just kept walking.

As he followed, he noticed a large reddish-brown stain on the floor. It reminded him of the dried up blood that had been spilled throughout Yharnam and many places surrounding the city.

It was probably caused by the invader woman.

Near the stain was a small staircase that the small group was walking up. Seeing no other alternative, he crawled as fast as he could to the stairs, following the woman in bone up them, and hiding behind her tunic.

This close up, he could feel the raw emotions coming from the woman. Or rather, the lack of most emotions coming from her. She gave off a feeling of amusement, but it was like it was tainted and twisted, to the point of being sadistic. She was powerful, and she knew it. He could tell that she wouldn't hesitate to try and kill anyone and everyone if it brought her the slightest bit of satisfaction.

As soon as they entered the room, he immediately got as far away as possible from her. In the room was a woman dressed in red, standing by a simple table set up in the middle of the room. There were a few chairs scattered around, and a single hanging light. As quietly and stealthily as possible, Chester went and hid behind a chair that was close to the door.

Peeking out from behind it, he watched as the woman at the table greeted the man with the cane in a pleasant tone.

"Roman, how is the train?"

The man, Roman, acted offended, "What, no 'How are you?'." He scoffed "The trains fine, it'll be ready soon. We had a small problem, but it's dealt with for now."

The woman narrowed her eyes. Her voice got noticeably colder "What type of problem?"

"Oh, just three idiots found outside the city by a patrol. They're currently locked up in one of the houses under Glenn. They were dressed like they were from several centuries ago, and their weapons were basically antiques."

Chester internally cheered. It wasn't much to go on, but it was a start. He would have to look in houses, underground. Turning back to the conversation, he was just in time to see the invader rush up to Roman. "Describe them."

Roman looked at her in distaste. "Who's asking?"

She pulled out a small sword and held it threateningly. "Describe them now, or I will castrate you."

Roman paled slightly, before beginning to describe the small group. "Uh...there was an old man with a hammer, a woman with a katana, and a doll-woman."

The invader placed the sword back on her belt, and leaned over the table. "Who you just found, sweetcheeks, are the three people I've been hunting recently." She turned to the woman in red. "I'm going with them when they leave."

"Ah-ah-aah. I still have need of you. You can go when you finish my task, they aren't going anywhere."

After several moments of silence, the invader nodded stiffly. Roman continued to stare at the invader. "So, uh, who's the new girl?"

"Oh, she's just a new...addition to our little group." She turned to the invader. "We had a bit of a rough start, but now things have smoothed out."

Roman nodded, and looked back to the woman. "So...the communication tower. Did you get what you needed?" She inclined her head "Great, now can I know what the big plan is?"

The woman put on a thinking face, before smiling. "Not quite yet. You will know, soon enough." She pulled out a little back square. "Now, I have more information on Ironwood's fleets. There will be three large airships present during the Vytal festival. We need control of one to achieve our goals. There is already one present at Beacon, so we simply need someone to get aboard for a prolonged period of time." She looked toward Roman.

He frowned "Me? You want me, criminal mastermind Roman Torchwick, to somehow get on an airship and not attract attention?"

The boy with silver hair stepped forward. With a smirk on his face, he looked to Roman in amusement. "Actually, I think you should attract a lot of attention. After all, Atlesian airships are equipped with jail cells for charming individuals such as yourself."

Roman sighed and looked down, clearly irritated. "Really? Captured, that's the plan? You want me to get captured, for a plan I don't even have full details of? You have got to be kidding me."

Chester listened in confusion, and as the two continued to bicker he didn't notice that the small girl had snuck up on him. Without warning, his chair was flung sideways, and he was sent sprawling into the corner, his hat landing next to him. Instantly, every pair of eyes was on him. Roman, the silver haired boy, and the green haired girl looked in disgust at what he could guess was his appearance. The girl was smirking down at his small form, and the woman in red was looking at him with curiosity. Finally, the invader simply stared at him, her mask covering her expression.

Grabbing his hat, he crouched down further in fear, and the woman in red spoke.

"Well now, what do we have here? I've never seen anything like you before."

The invaders mask never left him. "I know exactly what it is." She drew the warped sword from her back. "It is a messenger. A creature of my... _homeland_...that is used for delivering information. And I would bet my blood that this one is a friend of your little prisoners, Roman." She pointed the tip at Chester, within half a foot of his head. "And it just heard everything you just said."

Cinder's eye narrowed and was enveloped in a small flame. The invader was still speaking. "So the next logical step, would be to destroy it before it had a chance." She lunged forward, the tip of her sword centimeters away, when he flattened himself, the stab going straight above him, and he opened a portal as quickly as he could. Sadly, it appeared right underneath him, so he had no time to prepare before he was ripped away through space.

***Line Break***

Normally, he would only use a portal if it was urgent and the target was close. Only one of those criteria were meet with this portal, as his destination was back at the old building with long hallways.

The portal was cold and lonely, like always, but it lasted much longer. By the time he exited, he was shivering and tears streamed down his face. He knew he needed to move quickly, but his body just wouldn't respond. He lay there, his hat clutched in his hands and a ruffled bandage on his head, and all he was left with were his thoughts. What felt like hours passed as he slowly regained movement in his limbs.

Leaning up, he looked around and saw that through a window that the sun was above the horizon, and there were some groggy guards patrolling around the area. With a sigh, he placed his hat on his head and began walking to the building. When he reached the black path, he knew that he wouldn't be able to handle another portal. Instead he crossed quickly, hoping that the guards would be too tired to notice him.

At the other side, he began to climb the building. He was a bit stiff, but he would manage, and soon he was at the top. Looking around, he saw the entrance that Roman and the girl had used, and quietly inched his way to it. There was a button on the side, and after he pushed it, the door was swept aside, into the wall. Entering the room, he looked around and saw two more buttons. The first had a '1' on it, and the second had a 'B'. Not knowing what to do, he pressed the first one and hid in the corner of the room.

It opened to a bunch of slightly tired guards facing away from the door. He quickly reached up and pressed the second button. Just as he pressed it, the guards turned and watched as the door shut on them. Hoping that they hadn't seen him, he once again hid himself in the corner. This time it took much longer for the doors to open, and when they did he peeked his head out. It was a massive cavern, filled buildings, boxes, and things he had never seen before. Looking toward the buildings, there were only a few he would consider 'houses'. They were more like four walls, a roof, a door, and some windows. The rest seemed to be large, rectangular building that were slowly crumbling.

With a huff, he began to work his way over to the houses. There were three he was particularly interested, as they each had people around them. The first had about ten people milling around, and upon peeking through a side window, he saw more people sleeping in bags. He quickly moved away to the next house, which had only two of the White Fang outside. They had weapons in their hands, and when he looked through the window he saw it was bare inside, except a small staircase in the corner.

This one was much more likely to hold his friends, and he began looking around for an entrance besides the door. After looking around the base of the structure, he found a grate in the back. With as much strength as he could muster, he pulled on the grate. It budged an inch, before flying off and sending him sprawling. As he climbed to his feet, he heard footsteps.

"Did you hear that?"

Oh no.

"Yeah, came from the back."

Quickly, he grabbed the grate and began to enter the hole it had left behind. He started to the grate in with him just as the steps turned the corner.

"What the hell was that?!"

He scrambled back, going deeper into the hole.

"I think there is something in the ventilation."

The person, a woman, scoffed. "Nothing smaller than a baby could fit in there. It must have come from somewhere around here."

Just as the other person began to talk, he stepped back another step.

And fell down another hole.

It wasn't a long fall, but it lead to a rather loud _bang_ when he hit the bottom. Looking around, he saw a long path with several more grate in the floor, and there was a breeze coming from somewhere. Shivering, he approached the first grate. It had several holes, and through them was a long hallway. Moving to the next, he saw a door through it, and a single man standing at the wall. He looked to be the same man who had lead his friends into the building on the surface. Frowning as well as he could, he moved to the last grate.

This one had no light coming from it, but when he could hear someone muttering profanity. Her voice was very familiar, and when he looked through the holes, he saw a two figures sitting on the floor, with another pacing back and forth. Without a doubt, he slowly began to push on the grate. Pushing a hand through one of the holes for a grip, he pushed it out before pulling it into the small path with him.

Taking off his hat, he dropped it through the hole. It slowly floated down to the two figures on the floor, who he could only guess were Navlaan and Doll. It landed on Navlaan's lap and he picked it up, looking at it curiously. He and Doll both looked at each other, before looking up.

He waved down at them, pleased at their shocked expressions.

***Line Break***

 **Infiltrator Chester, on duty!**

 **No but seriously, I am sorry that this is a day late. I was just too tired last night to finish it, and it ended up not happening. Longest chapter, though!**

 **Anyway, if I didn't make it as clear as I wanted, this chapter is based a day after Cinder fights Ruby in the communication tower. I tried to make that clear, but I had some trouble. If you see any problems with this chapter, please let me know.**

 **Thanks again lads and lasses. I'll probably see you guys next week, at some point. Bye!**

 **(EDIT:I now realize this wouldn't really be possible, so instead I changed a few things and had it be _the day_ of the dance. I'll work from there.)  
**


	10. The Plan

**Hello there Lads And Lasses.**

 **Here we are once again, ready for another chapter to unfold. (And I know that this will be late, I'm sorry, the edits took longer than I thought, and I was struck with a large period of writer's block.) But I have a question for you all, and this will probably make me look a little stupid, but oh well.**

 **Do I need to do a disclaimer? I mean I probably should, but I think we all know that I don't own anything to do with RWBY or Bloodborne, soooo...**

 **I'll do one now, but I'd really appreciate if someone could explain that to me, thanks.**

 **'I don't own RWBY or Bloodborne, they belong to their own separate companies.'**

 **ENJOY!**

***Line Break***

The Plan

POV: Navlaan

***Line Break***

Navlaan looked up at Chester in surprise. That surprise quickly flooded into anger and relief, respectively. Anger, because he had not watched the camp closely enough, and relief that he was there now.

"Get down here, and help the doll out of these rope" Navlaan whispered up. Chester nodded and after a moment's hesitation, he jumped down. Navlaan reached up with both hands and caught him, though having your hands forced together made catching things much more difficult.

Setting him down near the Doll's hands, he turned to look back at Latune, who was still ranting loudly. She apparently still hadn't noticed Chester, and he used that to his advantage. Walking over to the door, he leaned his ear up to it and listened. Calm breathing reached his ears, and he sighed. Moving back over to Latune, he grabbed her shoulder and shook her a bit.

This close up, he could actually see her expressions, and she wasn't happy in the slightest. "What, what do you want!?"

He spoke in a calm, normal voice. "That's enough Latune." He held a finger to his lips, before pointing to the Doll and Chester.

She took a moment to understand, before it clicked. "Ohh, how long-"

He quickly covered her mouth, glaring at her. "Do you want us to get caught? There is a guard right in front of the door, keep it down."

Her eyes widened slightly, and she nodded. He let go, and turned around to look at the door. No abnormal noise, and the handle wasn't turning. They were still in the clear.

Walking back to the Doll, he watched as chester finally got the ropes undone. Smiling in satisfaction, he bent down and pick him up. Lifting Chester to his eyes, he started speaking in a soft voice. "Alright now, how did you find us?"

The messenger nodded and reached under his hat. Pulling out a piece of paper, he looked at it for several seconds before handing it to him. He read it out loud quietly.

 _Followed the man with the cane_

 _Went to a building_

 _Invader was there_

Navlaan's eyes bulged. "Jazabelle is with them?!" He whispered loudly.

Chester lifted a finger to his mouth, and gestured for him to keep reading. He sighed, irritated and angry, and continued.

 _They talked about hurting people_

 _Talked about hurting friends_

 _Got caught_

 _Took a portal here_

 _Invader will be here soon_

"Soon? How soon?"

Chester shrugged and took back the paper. He stared at it again and gave it back.

 _Tomorrow at the earliest_

 _She had a task to do first  
_

Navlaan groaned quietly, and looked down at Chester again. "The man with the cane, Roman, do you know where he is?"

Chester shook his head, and grabbed the paper again. Handing it back, Navlaan snatched it out of his hands and read.

 _The portal was long_

 _I slept long_

 _He will be here soon_

 _He could be here now_

"Great, just great. Anything else?"

Chester shook his head, and Navlaan put his hand over his eyes. He hadn't actually slept since the Grimm attack. Looking back to the group, they all looked at him with varying degrees of worry. He sighed and went back to the door. Putting his to the wood, he listened. The sound of voices slowly reached him, both women. As they got closer, their guard spoke up.

"Am I free to go now?"

A quiet voice answered him back. "Yes, but Torchwick called for you. He's somewhere on the train."

The man sighed, and his footsteps sounded throughout the hall. He heard a slam, which he guessed was the trap door, and it was silent once again.

Turning back to the others, he silently walked over to them and spoke in a low voice. "Well, now there are two guards. This just got harder, but I have a plan."

"First, Chester, is there any way to see the guards from the airways?" He nodded. "Okay, I need you up there. You need to be quiet, and you need to watch them. If they start acting tired at any point, get down here and tell us. Understand?"

Chester nodded once again, and Navlaan grabbed him, setting him on his hand. Reaching up, Navlaan got Chester as close to the airway as possible, and motioned for him to jump. He took a few moments, before he jumped up and grabbed the edge. Pulling himself up, he waved down at them before disappearing from sight. Navlaan turned back to the Doll and Latune. "Alright, now Doll, " She jumped when he looked to her. "I need you to watch for Chester. We will probably be here for a while, and I know I can't stay awake that long, but you don't need sleep. If either of us fall asleep, wake us when Chester comes back. Can you do that?"

She nodded her head and leaned against the wall, looking up at the hole in the ceiling. Finally, Navlaan turned to Latune. "When we have the signal, we both need to start banging on the door. Hit it as hard as you can. When they start yelling at us, we both stop. This door seems to be hollow, so it should be fairly breakable. I am going to charge it, and when it comes down I need you to get out and attack the guards. They should be fairly disoriented, and you can surprise them. What do you think?"

Latune stared at him for several seconds, before she started to chuckle softly and shake her head. After a few moments, she spoke in an exasperated tone. "Alright, and what happens after we take them out. Are we supposed to get through the entire place and out with these things on?" She shook her wrists "And what about our weapons and bags? Where are we going to find those? Have you thought about any of this!?"

Navlaan looked at her in disbelief. "Hey, I'm just trying to get us out, I haven't exactly thought about afterwards!"

"And another thing-"

"Latune? Navlaan?"

"I don't hear any ideas from you, so why are you complaining?!"

"Navlaan!"

"Well at least I'm trying to think it completely through first!"

"Latune!"

"What!" They both spoke at the same to the Doll. She pointed to the door, where two women stood looking at them with smirks on their faces, both of their eyes covered by a mask. One was about five and a half feet tall, with a hood over her head and brown bangs hanging down from under it. The second was about a foot taller than her companion, and had short, dark purple hair. She also had a thin tail of the same color coming out from behind her.

Navlaan turned from them, to Doll, to Latune, before going back to the women. "Hehe, we were just-CHARGE!" He barreled toward them, ramming directly into the purple haired one's stomach. He quickly climbed on top of her, holding an arm against her throat to force her down, before he noticed that he wasn't actually touching her. Rather, he was about an inch away from her neck. She brought up one hand to his face and punched him.

The first hit knocked off his glasses, disorienting him long enough for her to get her hand under his arm and start to push it away. He righted himself and began to add more pressure to his arm. She punched at him again, but he was ready this time and ducked in, slamming his forehead into hers. It didn't hit, but it forced her head into the floor, and seemed to knock her mask off.

She had a pair of startlingly deep brownish-red eyes, and they were currently out of focus. He took the advantage by padding more pressure to her throat. It didn't do anyhting noticeable, but she seemed to start panicking.

' _Why the hell can't I hit her?!_ '

She punched again, and it connected once again. She disoriented him, and as he tried to right himself she kneed upward, shoving him forward over her head and onto the floor. He stood quickly, and faced her. She was glaring at him, and rubbing her throat with one hand. Her other hand was clenched in a fist around a strange gun, and then she opened her mouth.

"You goddamn fucking moron! We are here to help you!"

He took several seconds to fully understand what she had just said, before his mind went reeling. He stared at her confused, before he turned to the other girl. She was standing in the doorway, holding her hand outward, palm pointed up and open. His gaze moved past her, and his jaw about dropped.

He saw Latune, still in the room, on the ground in a very awkward stance. Her legs and arms were both in a stance for running, but looked almost frozen. She looked as if she had been stopped mid sprint, and someone had moved to her side and tipped her over. The only thing that seemed to work was her head, as she was glaring up at the woman. She spoke in an irate tone.

"What the Hell?! What did you do!?"

The woman spoke in a calm voice, almost monotone but with a bit of amusement. "I sent an electrical charge through your body, causing all of your skeletal muscle to tense, and you to stop in place. Without movement, you lost stability and fell over."

"...And what the hell does that mean?"

The woman sighed, and her tone switched from calm and amused to calm and condescending. "I shocked you and paralyzed you temporarily."

Navlaan turned to the tall woman, who had stopped glaring at him. She was looking down the hallway toward the exit. She looked back at him with a worried look. "Quickly, get back in the room."

"Why should-"

"Go NOW, I think someone is coming."

He hesitated for a moment, before moving back past the woman and crouching near Latune. Said woman bent down and tapped her, before moving out of the room and shutting the door. As he tried to help Latune up, she shakily pushed him away and promptly fell over again. She glared at him, before trying again.

' _I don't think she's actually stopped glaring since we got captured._ ' He looked down at her, before looking at the door. ' _That's actually sort of unnerving._ '

Moving over to the door, he lifted his hand behind him to stop Latune's ranting and listened.

"What was that noise?"

"Humans got a little rowdy, taught them a little lesson." ' _That's the tall one._ '

"Well, they seem quiet now. Any more problems, and one of you come get us. Don't need humans running around when we're this close to being done with the train. Got it?"

There was an affirmative noise, and a hum, and after a few seconds the door echoed through the hall. After what felt like a minute, the door opened again and the two guards both walked in. The tall one looked from him, to Latune, to the Doll. Finally, she spoke.

"Alright, come here. I have a key for your handcuffs."

After several seconds, Navlaan stepped forward and presented his wrists. Instead of a key, she produced a small card from her pants pocket and waved it over the cuffs. They beeped for a second, before unlatching and falling to the ground. She moved to Latune and did the same to her, before returning the card to her pocket. Standing back, she put a hand on her chin and pushed upwards. A _pop_ sounded through the room, and she let her hand fall to her side. Narrowing her eyes, she turned to Navlaan. "Was the strangling really necessary? All you did put a crick in my neck."

Navlaan looked at her in silence, before he started chuckling. It swiftly turned into a quiet laughter, and he finally stopped after a few seconds. As he wheezed, he looked at her incredulously. "I attacked you, and tried to knock you unconscious, and all you can say is that I put a crick in your neck?"

She looked at him quizzically "What do you mean, put me unconscious? It would have been much longer before you got though my aura."

"Aura?"

"Yeah, you know, the manifestation of our souls?"

' _That cheating great one mentioned something about this, they use their souls to fight back Grimm._ _This Aura could be incredibly useful._ '

"Alright, so you have the arcane-like ability to control your soul. What the hell was the electric thing that brown-bangs did to me?" Latune asked.

"That was her semblance, she has a form of...what did you call it?" She turned to her small partner.

She gave a small sigh. "It's a form of myokinesis."

All she got were blank stares, even from her partner. "It allows me to control the movement of muscles in others. For example, stopping most of the muscles you use for movement in order to stop you. I need contact though, as I have transfer electricity into the body for it to work."

Navlaan listened with interest. While aura sounded incredibly useful, this semblance sounded like it could stop anything in it's tracks. Before he could question further, the tall one spoke again. "Anyway, we need to talk about your escape. We know that-"

Latune interrupted quickly. "We won't talk about anything until you tell us why you're helping us. So start explaining."

The tall one hesitated, before nodding her head. "I guess I wouldn't trust us either if we just up and decided to help some human prisoners. But I think introductions are in order, my name is Eris Mourn, and my friend here is Lyra Merton. What are yours?"

"I am Navlaan the Executioner, and hunter- well, former hunter of the Hunter's Dream."

"Oh, a hunter? What school did you go to?"

Navlaan stopped at this, unable to form an answer. ' _She must mean the hunters that Moon Presence mentioned._ ' It didn't help with answering. Hunters were indoctrinated for their physical prowess for some time, toward the beginning of their creation. But eventually it came down to those who would actually accept the offer. Hunting beast meant hunting your fellow Yharnamites, and very few could handle that. Navlaan only joined because he knew that it would help him in finding his master, and though it was a risky gamble, but it had turned out fairly well. And he met both the Doll and Gehrman through it.

Turning his attention back back to the question, he shook his head and spoke. "Not the type of hunter you are thinking of, but you could say I was an apprentice." Which was true, as his master was involved in the training of most executioners.

Latune spoke up next. "I am Latune, formerly a knight of Cainhurst Castle. Though I can guess that doesn't mean much to you." Eris shook her head, and Latune nodded.

Finally the Doll spoke up. "I am the Doll of the dream, meant to guide hunters on their journey." Her voice got soft, almost mournful. "Though, I don't think that really applies anymore."

Eris nodded her head slowly, obviously confused. "Allright...fairly easy to remember. Well, for the reason we are helping you...there's really only one."

She looked down, as if sad. Lyra decided at that moment to remove her mask, revealing a set of soft violet irises. Her tone was ever calm. "The White Fang is not what it used to be. We fought for the rights of faunus in many ways, but violence was always unacceptable. Our former leader was explicit that violence would never solve this problem, and those found using those methods were removed from the Fang." Her voice hardened slightly. "But about five years ago, something changed. Our old leader stepped down for some reason, and someone new took up the mantle. Instantly things started to change; peaceful protests became riots. People started to kill and maim those who stood against them, and eventually we became some sort of mercenary group for hire."

"Many of us took to this change well, I'm sad to say. But there are a few of us who don't exactly agree with the new methods." Her voice softened. "But for many of us, it's all we've ever known. I don't remember a time before the White Fang, and I kept hoping that maybe we could change, to go back to how it once was. It was a foolish hope, and we've just learned of what this whole operation was for."

Her eyes watered slightly, taking on a glossy, sad look. Eris moved next to her and rubbed her back soothingly. When it seemed that Lyra was done speaking, Eris took to finish explaining. "This place, the train, the dust...it's all here for a horrible plot, like out of those action movies you see nowadays." Navlaan had no idea what she meant, but she didn't elaborate. "The train is filled with a bombs. They're going to blow holes in the subway, and let in Grimm. They're going to lead them to Vale, and put a hole in the wall...and let all the Grimm through..." Her voice trailed off, before she mumbled something barely audible.

"They're going to kill so many people..."

They all stood in silence for several minutes, digesting the new information. Navlaan still had one question on his mind, though.

"What does this have to do with us?"

Eris looked up at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you helping us. You don't need to, in fact it will probably slow your progress until we got out weapons."

Her eyes lit up in realization, and a small smile appeared on her lips. "Oh, right. Us rescuing you has less to do with your help, and more with Kalrin's conscious."

Latune perked up at this, an angry look on her face again. "You mean the bitch that captured us?"

Eirs turned to her. "If by bitch you mean our oh so 'great' leader, then yes." She looked at Navlaan. "She told us about your little conversation, and apparently what you said hit her deep. She actually didn't want to capture you, but on of our scouts reported you, and she couldn't just ignore it. Us helping you is just her way of apologizing."

Navlaan smiled at this, and he turned to Latune and Doll. "Well, I think they sound genuine. What about you two?"

The Doll nodded without hesitation, and Latune hesitated before nodding her head reluctantly. He turned back to them and smiled a bit wider. "Well, there's your answer." He looked up at the airway. "Chester, get down here!"

There was a rumbling noise, before Chester fell from the vents and onto Navlaan's head. Eris looked shocked for a moment, before she shrieked slightly.

" _What the hell is that!?_ "

Navlaan smirked slightly. "Oh, this? This is Chester, our little messenger. He also makes a great scout, and he's fairly useful in several other areas as well."

She looked wary as she nodded her head, backed away slightly. Lyra, however, approached and looked at him with increasing interest. "Where did you find him?"

The Doll spoke up at this. "He is a little one, a being of the dream that acts as a messenger for hunters, hence the term 'messenger'. They may not look it, but they are incredibly intelligent and very protective, in their own way."

Chester looked over to the Doll, as if he were smiling at her, before turning back to Lyra. He removed his hat and bowed, imitating the usual hunter greeting, before moving to Navlaan's shoulders.

Navlaan clapped his hands. "Alright you said you had a plan to escape. What did you have in mind?"

***LIne Break***

 **Well, that was...interesting. And it took so much longer than I wanted it to. It was actually supposed to be a type of filler chapter, which is also why I thought I could go back and edit the other chapters. I didn't think that I would get writers block instead.**

 **So frustrating.**

 **Anyway, thank you guys for your patience. Even if it was only a few days off, I am still sorry it wasn't to the schedule.**

 **Speaking of schedules, screw them. I've decided that as long as I get a chapter in every week and a half or so, I'm good. No more set dates, they'll just go up as they're made.**

 **Also, NEW NAME! The Man with a Top Hat sounds much better to me.**

 **Thanks, Lads and Lasses. Lets hope for no more writers block, eh? Bye!**


	11. Story Time with Navlaan

**Hey there, Lads and Lasses**

 **So, I believe updates will be much easier now. I got a laptop, so now I can just pull it out and start writing.**

 **Easier, not necessarily faster, in fact it will probably be slower with school coming to an end and everything.**

 **So, to give myself more time and have a little fun, I'm going to make a little mini series in this story, which I call 'Story time with Navlaan.'**

 **As you can tell, this is a filler, nothing more, so there won't be many of them. But it was fun to wright, and you may or may not enjoy it.**

 **My take on some of the Bloodborne stories. This first one will be my favorite, and in my opinion, the saddest story.**

***Line Break***

Intermission one: Story time with Navlaan

***Line Break***

Navlaan rested against the wall of the cell, the Doll on his right and Chester on his shoulder. Eris and Lyra were standing by the door, and Latune was in the corner, bored out of her mind. They had finished discussing the plan, making it as smooth as escape attempts can be, and now only needed to wait for the right time.

Midnight, several hours away.

Finally, Navlaan spoke up. "Does anyone want to hear a story? I've got a few to tell."

He saw as the Doll's face lit up, and she immediately nodded her head in approval. "Alright, Doll agrees. Anyone else?"

Latune shrugged, most likely not caring, and Chester patted his head. Eris looked excited, while Lyra had a look of intrigue etched on her features. Taking it as a yes, Navlaan smiled slightly. "Alright, give me a minute to think of one. The Dolls' heard most of them, so I try to think of some new material."

Spending several minutes thinking, his features slowly settled themselves into a more saddening expression. "I think I've got one, but it's rather...sad. Is that alright?"

A round of slightly hesitant approval met his gaze, before he sighed and nodded. "Right... Lyra, Eris?" He turned to the duo. "There will be several things you may not understand in this story. You are not from Yharnam, and so you know nothing of our plight. Just try to keep up, and I'll explain where I can, yes?"

They nodded, and he tilted his head in thanks. Turning to have a better look at the occupants of the room, he began.

"This is the story...of Father Gascoigne and Henryk the Hunter."

"You may or may not know, but Father is not a term used by the healing church. Vicar, cleric, healer, but not Father. Gascoigne came from a far off land and it was doubtless that he gained this title outside of Yharnam. Whether it was for faith, the drive to help others, or a lust for blood, he joined the healing church soon after he arrived. He became what is known as a black church healer, people of the church who cleansed those they suspected had signs of beast hood. They were looked on with fear by the population of Yharnam."

Lyra quickly interjected. "Beast hood? What do you mean by that?"

"To understand that, you will need a quick lesson in the history of Yharnam. Beast hood, or rather a person who was becoming more beastly in nature. It was a plague brought on by the use of the Old Blood, something found by a college in Yharnam that had the incredible ability to heal. It was taken by the healing church as a way to help those of and around Yharman. It's where the church got it's name, and while it was seen as a miracle at first, it was later found to cause the beast plague."

"That truth was hidden by the church, and instead of stopping the usage of the old blood, they created the black and white church hunters. The black, as I explained, hunted those they suspected of beast hood. The white, however, were experts in the beast plague and in blood. They experimented, both on themselves and others, to further their research. They made people sick to see how far the blood could go, and they eventually destroyed the lower portion of Yharnam with these sicknesses. Eventually, the people discovered that the Old Blood had caused all of this chaos, and the church publicly banned the use of Old Blood."

His gaze shifted over to Latune. "There were those who found this outright unacceptable, and formed a type of cult which we call the Vilebloods. They built a castle on an Island, and it was named Castle Cainhurst. They followed their leader, the Queen of Cainhurst, with complete loyalty. Their goals are unimportant, as they are now unachievable, but in retaliation the healing church created the Executioners." He paused, turning to Lyra and Eris. "Yes, Latune is a Vileblood, and I an Executioner."

"But that isn't important to the story. All you need to understand is that the church did horrid things, and created these church hunters in an attempt to solve the problem."

He paused and sighed, a look of sadness in his eyes. "Back to the story, Gacoigne had a partner. An old man named Henryk, a hunter of a different branch of the church."

"The duo were extremely good at their jobs. They often led the nightly hunts, and were figureheads of the church. Little could get past them, and they brought both hope and fear to the citizens of the city. At some point, Gascoigne met and married a woman, Viola, the daughter of Henryk. They were happy as you could get in Yharnam, and soon they had a small little family, with two children!"

"It was them who finally got Gascoigne to leave the church. He went from a large figure of the Healing Church, to being a loving father and husband. He still participated in the hunts, all Yharnamites did, and he helped wherever he could." He looked up with a stern stare, "But he had his flaws. He was brutal in a fight and wouldn't hesitate to destroy the enemy."

"But the enemy wasn't always clear in his eyes. He was losing himself to the blood, and those around him knew it. When he was close to losing control, Viola would always go to find him, and play a music box, something hat symbolized his family. The song it played kept him sane, and he would always leave with his wife to their home."

"But one night, something happened. Gascoigne was leading a hunt, Henryk had been sent elsewhere, and his group had ended up in the Tomb of Oedon, where many of the church were buried. They were attacked by fierce beasts, and many men fell. But Gascoigne kept them strong, and they had destroyed each and every one of the blasted things." The saddened look returned to his face. "But Gascoigne didn't stop. He attacked his fellow Yharnamites, and being who he was...they didn't stand a chance."

"He slaughtered them all." He let that sink in, before continuing. "When he didn't return home, Viola went out to look for him. And for the first time she forgot the music box..."

His voice had gotten soft, and the Doll was now looking at him in worry. "Are you sure you want to continue? I will not mind if you do not wish to go on."

"No...no, I'll finish what I started." He spoke in a slightly louder voice, but there was no enthusiasm. "That night, I found their youngest at her window, and she asked me to find her mother. She handed me the music box, and said I would know it was her by a large, red brooch she wore. I made my way to Oedon Chapel, hoping to find them there. When I arrived at the tomb beneath the chapel, it was a mess. Filled with the corpses of both man and beast, and near the large tomb shrine stood Gascoigne. He was chopping into a dead man with his axe, his back to me, and muttering about beasts. I called out to him, and when he turned around I could almost feel the crazed aura around him."

"He attacked with vigor, his strength immense and enthusiasm apparent. He was out for blood, any elegance he may have had was replaced by wild, unorthodox swings. There was no sign of Viola, but I tried the music box when I had a moment of respite, to try to bring him back to his senses."

"It was like it hurt him, and he doubled over gripping his head. I thought it might have worked, but he stood, hunched over, and attacked with even more vigor. I fought him around the tomb, and I noticed that he seemed to like to put strength into his attacks. There was usually a split second before he swung where he left himself open. On his next swing, I shot my blunderbuss straight at his chest, and he fell to his knees. He looked to be in great pain, and I thought if I played the box again he might remember...that it might bring about rational thought."

He lowered his head to his hands, and spoke in a more muffled voice. "It did nothing but make it _worse_. He gripped his head like the time before, but instead of getting back up he started to change. His hands grew to claws, his body quickly covered itself in fur, and he grew several feet, his clothing ripping. He dropped his weapons and screamed, before looking straight at me and lunging, hell bent on ripping me to shreds. We ended up on the walkway that led to the upper portion of the Chapel, and to my right was a way to get back down into to the tombs, a gap in the railing. He leapt, and I shot, once again stunning him. When he landed, it was on his knees, and I shoved my sword into his heart, knowing he was beyond saving. He froze, his claws outstretched in a last ditch attempt to attack, before he fell off the walkway."

He removed his hands, and looked at the others. They were listening intently, the Doll looked had tears in her eyes, Latune had a look of grudging concern. Lyra seemed calm, but her hood was slightly pulled down, and Eris was staring intently. He continued in a low, soft tone. "I followed him down, but the fight was over. He was dying, his movements slow and jerky, and he was crawling toward a dead body on the roof of the shed we landed on. I was going to shoot him, put him out of his misery, but then I saw what he was reaching for. The dead body was that of a woman... _with a red brooch on her chest._ "

"I stood, stunned, as what was once Gascoigne reached out, and enveloped his wife's hands with his own. He let out a wheeze, and he seemed to whisper to her, his eyes fixed on hers, before his hands went limp...and he was no more."

They sat in silence for several minute, sadness almost looming in the area around them. Then the Doll slowly wrapped an arm around his shoulder. He leaned into the embrace, but said nothing. A few moments later he move out of it and continued. "I payed my respects to Viola and the man that Gascoigne was before continuing into the chapel."

He smiled his first, real smile since the story began. "There was only one person inside, but he was quite the character. He was know as the dweller of Oedon Chapel, a deformed man that keeps the incense inside the chapel lit. He was the reason the chapel became a safe haven, and he was one of the friendliest people left in Yharnam. He asked me to take people there, and they could last out the night. There were several people left in Yharnam that needed the protection, and eventually it _did_ become a haven. Though not everyone I spoke with made it..."

His smile disappeared and he was silent for almost a minute. It was only when the Doll touched his arm that he continued. "Regardless, I eventually happened upon someone outside the front door of the chapel. Her name was Eileen the Crow, an old woman dressed much like her title implies. She was old, perhaps older than me, and yet she was one of the more duty inclined in Yharnam. Her job was to hunt the hunters that had gone mad, much like Gascoigne. She told me that Henryk had found the corpses of Viola and Gascoigne, his daughter and step son...and he went mad."

"He was her mark, and she told me to steer clear of the tomb. Then she walked away, down behind the chapel. Instead of listening to her, I decided to help. After all, I played a part in their deaths...and in the end I did nothing but bring about her death!" He jolted when Chester pressed a piece of cloth into his hands, a handkerchief. He looked to Chester confused for a moment, before a tear fell from his cheek and onto the cloth. Surprised, he looked from the cloth to the others in the room, all with a surprised look on their face or in their eyes. He looked back down and wiped his eyes, before smiling slightly and handing it back to Chester.

"I...Thank you, Chester." The messenger nodded it's head happily.

"As I was saying, I went to the tomb in an attempt to help Eileen. When I arrived at the same ledge that Gascoigne had fallen off of, I saw that she was right behind the man I assumed was Henryk. He wore a beaten up yellow overcoat, a leather hat and a mask over his mouth, and a set of leather boots and gloves. He held a pistol in one hand and a cleaver with a saw-like edge in the other."

"He...he must have hear my steps, as he quickly turned around without warning. Seeing Eileen, he jumped forward before she could react and sent a foot into her stomach. As she hunched over, I jumped down as quickly as I could to try and reach them. He had already begun to slash into her with his cleaver, and when I reached them they were both covered in blood..."

"I rushed him, my hammer at the ready and I slammed it straight into his chest. He went flying back several feet, landing on his back. I quickly reached down to check on Eileen, and as I grabbed her hand she weakly gripped back. The sound of Henryk getting up was evident, and I let go of her hand to face him. He was fast, so much faster then I, but I thought that with enough punishment I could put the old man down."

He chuckled dryly, and he looked up at the ceiling. "I almost killed him, I could tell. His right leg was bent at an unsightly angle and his left arm was seemingly unusable... But when I attacked again, I was too cocky. I lifted my hammer overhead, and amazingly he lifted his left arm, his shooting arm, and stopped me in my tracks. As my arms were blown back, he went to slice at me, I knew I wouldn't be getting back up from it. I closed my eyes...

" _And the sound of flesh being torn into meet my ears._ "

He brought his gaze back down, a tired look in his eyes. "The sound is still fresh in my mind, as easy to recall as my name...It feels like a lifetime ago, and yet it happened just a week ago. The sound of splitting flesh, of splattering blood...and when my eyes opened Eileen stood there, her arm useless and Henryk's cleaver being pulled from her shoulder. She fell twice. Once to her knees, and an then to her side."

"My visioned blurred, before I lifted my hammer and swiftly brought it down on Henryk. I slammed down once, then again, and again...and my hammer fell from my hands. I looked down at Eileen, hoping that there might be some chance...but I already knew the answer. I knelt down and crossed her arms, adjusting her beak-like mask, and laying her weapons at her side."

"Thus ended Eileen the Crow and Henryk the Old Hunter. And with their deaths ends our tale."

He looked down at his lap, and he felt an arm reach once again across his shoulders. He didn't lean into it this time, but he also felt a small hand patting his head.

"We sill have a few hours left. We'll come back in when it's time to go."

He heard the two former guards move out of the room, the door shutting but not locking, and then

silence.

***Line Break***

 **Well, that was fun.**

 **Sorry this took so long. BUT THIS TIME IT WASN'T ENTIRELY MY FAULT!**

 **Fanfiction decided that _while I was_ _writing_ it would go ahead and glitch out. What was once a 2,550 word document became a 1,500 word document. I was slightly pissed and stopped writing for that day, and the day after.**

 **But it's here now!**

 **Also, you probably know about him already, but VaatiVidya is an amazing Souls-Borne (Dark souls & Bloodborne) Lore you-tuber. I used his video for the lore of this chapter, so make sure you check him out!**

 **Thanks, Lads and Lasses, I'll see you next time. Bye!**


	12. The Escape

**Hello there, Lads and Lasses.**

 **Whoa whoa, hold your torches and pitchforks, I have an explanation. I've been having...difficulties with family and until recently, school, so I really didn't have the want to write at the time. And now that school is starting up again, and my family issues are mostly solved. I am going to try and continue this story.**

 **Also, SO MANY FOLLOWERS! Well, my new compatriots of Fanfiction reading, and the ones who have been with me from the first, get ready for action, adventure, heartbreak, a bit of comical relief, and MORE!**

 **(Disclaimer: I own neither Bloodborne, nor RWBY. They each belong to their separate companies. I am a simple writer of fiction for fans. Also there is no heartbreak in this chapter.)**

***Line Break***

The Escape

POV: Navlaan

***Line Break***

 _The sound of a wet crunch met my ears, a sound I had heard many times before in this unsightly hellhole of a city. But this one...this one was different, it was clearer, much clearer than it should have been, and left a ringing sound to drown out anything else that might have made noise. I felt something splatter on my chest, on my face, and I opened my eyes._

 _Through them I saw something that shook me to my very core. I had seen much of the devastation the beasts had wrought, but nothing compares to the sight of a friend, however short of time I had known her, being nearly bisected at the waist..._

 _I was seeing red_.

 _The man in yellow garb didn't know what hit him. He probably didn't even care. He was too far gone, far too weak to fight back. The sound of bones cracking, grinding, and the wet sound of cutting meat was dull in my ears next to the roar that had filled my mind._

 _Finally, when he was nothing but a bloody mess, I stopped. Anger left me, and my weapon fell from my hands. I fell to my knees, and after a moment I crawled towards The Crow. A woman who seemed truly unaffected by the destruction the plague had brought. Strong, fearless, merciless, but most important of all, sane..._

 _And I had foolishly brought her demise..._

 _That same wet crunching sound played in my mind over and over and over again as I worked to give her body the respect someone of her standing deserved. Her weapons were laid to her side, and I tried my best to cover her wound. Finally, I brushed the blood from her mask, leaving it with splotches of a rust red color._

 _I stood, grabbed my weapon from the floor, and turned to the lantern that stood at the base of the fountain. I breathed in deeply, and left for the dream._

* _Sigh*_

Navlaan shook his head in another attempt to rid the sound from his mind.

It wasn't working. It never worked.

Shaking his head, he pushed his arms to the floor and brought himself to his feet. They didn't have time for this, it was almost midnight and he needed to ready himself for the escape.

The plan was a simple one in theory, but that didn't make it easy. First things first, they needed to take out the next guard rotation. It would give them the time to do everything else before any alarms were raised.

Next was to get to the train, where the ring leader of the operation, Roman Torchwick, was staying and where their things were being held.

Finally, after they had their things, they'd do what they could to stop the train and get out before the entire place was up and alert.

* _Thump, Thump*_

Navlaan looked up as the door to the room was opened, and two men fell to the floor in a heap. Right after them was Eris, who proceeded to crouch down next to the two. After opening their eyelids, she took the butt of her gun and slammed it into their temples. Finally, a sigh was heard from Lyra before she started to lead the others out of the room. As she did so, Eris grabbed one of the men and dragged him into the room, while Navlaan grabbed the other. Once they were sat back to back, Navlaan spoke.

"How long will they be out?"

"A few minutes at most. I didn't want to hurt them too badly, so we need to tie them up."

She walked over to the rope that had held the Doll and seemed to measure the length.

"This will work well enough. Do you have anything to cover their mouths?"

He thought for a moment, before he reached down to the bottom of his cloak, and ripped a long strand from it. "Here, use this."

As she tied them, Navlaan spoke.

"I don't think I ever actually apologized for attacking you. We had been planning our escape, as you might have heard, and seeing you two enter just...made me react. I thought if I didn't we wouldn't get much of a chance to so anything." He sighed, "Is your neck alright?"

Eris watched him for a few seconds, before a small smile formed on her lips. "Yeah, my necks alright. Any bruising that might have happened was healed by my aura. It's one of the many things it can do."

"Speaking of aura," Navlaan looked to the two men questioningly. "Why don't some people have it? I would assume that most people would, yet these two went down without much of a scuffle."

"There's a good reason for that. Most people spend a very long time activating their aura. It takes a lot of self control to do it by yourself. However, if you can have someone close to you activate it with their own aura, but unless they have feel a very special connection with the person, it can take a lot out of them. Therefore, most people live a long portion of their lives without it."

Navlaan nodded his head. "And how does one activate it by themselves?"

"Well, they first have to have a lot of self control. Then-"

She was interrupted by Latune, who had just popped her head through the door.

"Are you almost done?!" She whisper-yelled. "We need to get moving."

Eris turned to Navlaan. "I can tell you the rest another time. Lets get moving, old man."

Navlaan looked shocked for a moment, before glaring at her as she walked out the door.

"...I may be old but I'll still kick your ass" He muttered.

***Line Break***

"Look, it's the train."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Eris."

They had, indeed, made it to the train. There had been few patrols out, but given how the faunus could see in the dark they were extra careful in sneaking around. Navlaan had stayed near the back of their little group, and he was watching as Lyra and Eris bickered back and forth to each other. Finally, they finished and turned back to everyone else. Eris then spoke up.

"Alright, Kalrin and a small group should be where your weapons are. However, Torchwick will have put up other guards around the place. Your weapons are fairly close to the back of the train, in one of the cargo holds. Once we get there, and we meet up with Kalrin and the rest, stopping the train is the next priority. Any questions?"

Navlaan had none, and when no one spoke up, Eris continued. "Alright, I'll go first. Get to the caboose of the train, and we'll basically wing it till we get to Kalrin."

With that, she poked her head around the building they were hiding at, before hurrying across the gap as fast and as quiet as she could manage. Once she made it, she pulled herself up and opened the back of the train. She disappeared for a few seconds before she popped her head back out and beckoned for the next person. The Doll stepped up and, with Chester clutching to her shoulder, she quickly crossed the gap. Eris held a hand out to her and pulled her onto the train. After the Doll went Latune, who crossed in seconds.

Navlaan was about to cross when Lyra suddenly held an arm out to his chest. When he looked down at her, she held a single finger to her lips and pointed to his right. Looking past the building they were hiding next to, he saw two White Fang men walking around the corner. That wouldn't have been strange, just another patrol, except that they had a young girl dressed in red and black struggling between them.

"What the hell?" He whispered.

Lyra suddenly pushed him against the building, and suddenly he couldn't move. She then pushed herself against the building, and they both watched as the trio walked past their building and continued toward the train. When they were far enough away, Lyra unfroze him and quickly motioned for him to cross the gap. They sprint walked in sync, and soon they were at the back of the train. They climbed up, and Eris opened the door for them to enter.

When the door was closed, Eris looked to the both of them. "What happened?"

Lyra responded instantly. "There were two of the White Fang, and they were holding a girl between them. She seemed young, perhaps fifteen or so."

"Hmm...well, we'll see if we can't save her too. For now, we better hurry. Your things are two cars down." She pointed to the center of the car, where a strange object that had a small cylinder set in it was placed, surrounded by crates. "Keep away from the bombs, we don't know how they're set, and I really don't want to find out the hard way."

"Wait, these are bombs?!"

Everyone looked to Latune, who in turn was looking at the now named bomb. "What type of bomb is shaped like that?"

"Big ones."

After that, they moved through the car they were in to the next one. It had the same set up, bomb with crates. But this one was different, in that its door was open, and Roman Torchwick was directing several men that were moving crates. They kept back, and Navlaan was about to speak, when he was cut off by the annoyed voice of Roman himself.

"Oh-For crying out loud, do you idiots not know how to stack?! I mean really, that pile looks like its going to fall over any second. God, this is why I don't work with animals. Get those boxes down an-"

His rant was stopped by the familiar sound of Perry's voice.

"Hey boss, I think we found something you might want to see!"

"Is it good or bad Perry?" He moved toward the door. "Because let me tell ya, I have had a day."

Perry seemed confused himself. "Uh...It's a little girl?"

He jumped down, as well as the other Fang, and Navlaan lost sight of them.

"That would be bad..."

With the Fang and Torchwick no longer in sight, they all moved quickly to the next car, and when they entered they saw several things at once.

One, Kalrin, with a crossbow-spear.

Two, a woman with a very colorful head of hair, and a pair of claws attached to her wrists.

Three, a man with reptilian orange eyes, black hair, and a set of twin pistols.

And all staring coldly at another man with an odd looking cleaver, and a mask covering his face.

Or rather they had been, until they were distracted by new arrivals.

With their attentions shifted, the cleaver the man was holding began to spin rapidly and a loud noise drowned out most other sound in the car. He took a swing at the reptilian man. He was fast, but his weapon was cumbersome and the Reptilian man was able to dodge back with relative ease. Eris and Lyra took up fighting stances, Eris with her gun and Lyra unarmed.

"Your things are over there, we'll hold him off."

Lyra charged in, while Eris went to her knees and began to fire small bursts at the man. He turned away from the other man and faced his attackers. Lyra was small in comparison to him, but she was agile and kept out of the way of his weapon. Eris took shots when she could, hitting the man in the neck, head, back, and legs in an attempt to lower his aura, which he seemed to have in abundance. with a mad chuckle, the man left Lyra and charged towards Eris. When he had closed the distance between them by half, Eris shifted her fighting stance, and her weapon shifted from a rifle to a Halberd.

She held the weapon at the ready, and when he was withing range she twisted her body, taking her weapon with it. The axe part of the weapon hit him on the arm, and he was forced to stop and back away.

As they fought, Navlaan and Latune ran over to the pile of things, grabbing their weapons. With his hammer and blunderbuss in his hands, and on his back, he quickly ran back and entered the fray. By this time, Kalrin, the man, and the woman had all joined as well. The man with the loud cleaver was surrounded. Kalrin then spoke out.

"That's enough Lieutenant, you're done."

The Lieutenant chuckled, before lifting his foot and slamming it back down on the ground. A shock wave blasted outward, and they stumbled in order to stay on their feet. As they recovered, the Lieutenant slammed his cleaver into the reptilian man that had been with Kalrin. He flew back, going through the door to the next car and out of sight. The Lieutenant followed at a quick pace, and the door slammed close.

Upon regaining her footing, the woman ran over to the door. "TAREC!"

"Persephone! Calm down, we'll get him back."

But Persephone had already reopened the door, and was gone before Kalrin had finished her sentence.

Kalrin turned to us, appearing both worried and calm "We need to chase after Tarec and Perse, and-" She was cut off as she tried regain her footing, along with everyone else in the car.

"Shit, the trains moving, and we don't have time to deactivate the bombs. Get moving, we need to get to the front of the train!"

She holstered her weapon onto her back, and walked up to the door. "Keep moving forward, the cars are going to start exploding!"

And she was gone.

***Line Break***

Eris and Lyra were quick to get the others moving. With their things gathered, they were quick to follow the other three rebel Fang members.

They made it through two cars before they heard thumping on the top of the train. Knowing it could lead to trouble and possible ambush, Navlaan decided that it would be best if someone went to the roof of the train.

And by saying that he automatically volunteered himself.

Muttering to himself, he walked out the door with the rest, and moved to the side to climb one of the ladders there. What he saw when he got to the top wasn't exactly what he expected.

A man with a strange bat that spewed fire had just hit a small dog, which was currently moving very fast and was on fire

Aimed right at his face.

Ducking down, he watched as the dog soared over his head and into a strange looking machine. It was almost beast-like, but it looked to be made of metal. The dog slammed straight into the thing and it was blown to pieces. He climbed the rest of the way up and turned around to see the same girl as before with a large scythe pointed at him. Trying to show he wasn't their enemy, he called to them.

"Need some assistance?!"

The girl looked to the man, as if wondering what to do. The man looked at him for a moment befor-"HELLOTHERE,BYYOUROUTFITI'MASSUMINTHATYOUARENOTWITHTHEFANG,ANDYOURASSISTANCEWOULDBEGREATLYAPPRECIATED!"

Navlaan nearly went into cardiac arrest.

***Line Break***

POV: Latune

***Line Break***

Latune nearly had a heart attack.

She had been walking through to the next car when out of nowhere three girls dressed in yellow, black, and white dropped to the floor of the car.

The yellow one was equipped with nothing but gauntlets, however they most likely had an alternate form, like every other weapon in this world. The black colored one held two swords, a cleaver and a katana, one in each hand. Finally the girl in white held a rapier that had several glowing colors under its guard.

"By the old blood, where the hell did you come from!"

The three girls turned to see Latune holding a hand over her chest, the other on her knee.

"Sweet lady Cainhurst, I was not expecting that..."

The one in black suddenly disappeared, reappearing behind Latune and holding her sword to Latune's throat.

"Stand down now, and I won't hurt you!"

Latune waited for a moment, then started to chuckle a bit. "You don't do this often, do you?"

"I said stand down!"

"Yeah, you obviously don't do this often, cause otherwise you would have looked behind me before grabbing me. especially since I am right next to a door."

As if on que, a voice spoke out from behind them.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you unhanded my friend."

Turning around, still holding Latune, the girl in black was greeted by the faces of the Doll, Eris, and Lyra.

Eris spoke next. "Out of the way, this train is on a one way course to Vale, and its not going to stop any time soon."

The girl in white then spoke out. "And we are here to stop you, so stand down. The White Fang will be stopped."

Lyra stepped forward. "Calm yourself, there is no need for violence." She seemed to wince slightly "We are not the White Fang."

"And how can we trust you?"

Lyra seemed to think for a moment. As she opened her mouth to speak, Latune, At this point, was sick of the sword at her throat, and seeing how the girl holding her had relaxed a tiny bit, she elbowed the her and quickly pulled out of the grip. She began sprinting to the end of the car, but stopped in her tracks when something appeared in her way.

"What the-YOU!" The girl with the parasol, Neo, had appeared not ten feet from where she stood.

The girl in yellow spoke out. "You know her too?!"

The Doll answered her. "She knocked out Latune and our friend Navlaan not to long ago."

The girl smirked and opened her parasol in a relaxed fashion. Latune looked ready to kill.

"Dirty, rotten, no good, diminutive WENCH! "

The girl in yellow stepped forward, her expression sour. "No way are you getting away this time."

"Yang," This from the girl in white "We need to get to the front of the train!."

"Then I'll keep her distracted."

The girl in white paused for a moment, before nodding. The two colored girls, Lyra, and Eris ran by, exiting the opposite side of the train. Neo moved to stop them when a gun entered her vision. Latune took aim and fired, cursing silently as the girl disappeared to reappear two feet closer.

The Doll had stayed behind, knowing she would be no help in combat. Chester had taken temporary residence in her hat.

Latune pulled up her pistol, taking aim at Neo once again as Yang cocked back her gauntlets, showing they did indeed have a sort of second form. As Latune shot once more, Yang charged, eyes slightly tinted red and the smell of smoke beginning to permeate the air.

***Line Break***

 **Alright, that wraps up that part. I would once again like to apologize for the lateness of this chapter. However, I do plan to continue writing once again, and I am very grateful to both those who stayed and those who have joined more recently.**

 **This chapter was a doozy. It was easy to write at first, but towards the end I felt like I got some writers block. It might have to do with the fact I'm not used to writing in scenes from something else, even if they were altered. Tell me what you guys think, and as always, Thank you Lads and Lasses.**

 **See you all next time.**

 **EDIT: Fixed up that end bit. It had been bugging me for a bit. Nothing major, just some issues with the flow of it. Also, I went and watched the battle scene between Yang and Neo, and I noticed that Yang seemed really angry. Does anyone remember why she was so angry? If you could tell me, that'd be great, thanks!**

 **The Man with a Top Hat**


	13. The Breach

**Hello Lads and Lasses!  
**

 **The tomatoes may fly in but a moment. First, I would again like to apologize. I have no good reason for my absence, and I simply had writers block. This chapter has been a big block in my writing, and I am not sure how well things will go from here, but I will try to update when I can.**

 **So, I made a few changes to chapters past, nothing too major. Smoothed some things out. Now we continue!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either of these forms of entertainment. Otherwise Bloodborne would have been much worse, and the Orphan of Kos would't be able to wreck you as fast as Noir 'killed' John the first couple of times.**

 **God I hate that boss.**

 **(Points to those who got the Noir and John reference)**

 **Also, I just noticed I probably shouldn't use POV when my story is in third-person, but I also write that section based on what I think that persons thoughts are.**

 **Tell me what you guys think.**

 **ON WITH THE SHOW!**

***Line Break***

POV: Navlaan

***Line Break***

 _This man is utterly insane._

Navlaan watched as the man with green hair punted the small canine over to one of the large machines stomping toward them. Confused, he chose to disregard the man and dog to focus on the approaching mechanical monstrosities. With a hand on the handle of his hammer and a flick of the wrist, his weapon was there to meet them head on. As the first arrived he fluidly dodged in between its legs, smashing down on its right leg. Moving behind it, he removed the head of his hammer from the weapon and, using his gained momentum, turned and threw it at the back of the machine. It stumbled, and the hammer turned projectile fell to the floor with a thud.

He approached swiftly, thinking he could somehow disable the machine with the use of his sword. He approached its legs once again and shoved the blade into the joints of the right leg. The blade me little more than a dent before the monster reached down and smacked him with its arm. He flew away from it, smashing into another machine that had been preoccupied with a small black and white dog. Falling to the floor next to its leg, he took advantage of the situation.

Removing his blunderbuss from his back, he aimed point blank at the things leg joint and fired. There was the cracking sound of a gun being fired, followed by the sound of crunching metal. The machine stumbled before it fell from the train.

Looking up from the falling machine, Navlaan saw the dog that had been attacking it was staring at him. For a few seconds, that was all it did, before it waddled up to his face and licked him.

Spluttering, Navlaan pushed the dog off before turning to the machine that had hit him away. What he saw instead was the large remains of metal, some ashes, a few small fires, and the girl in red in the middle of it all, holding a man in a mask down with her scythe.

"Well,thatwentmuchbetterthanexpected! Now,whoareyouandwhywereyouinthemiddleofalargeWhiteFangoperation?!"

Navlaan turned and stared incredulously at the man, suddenly feeling that this will be a common occurrence with this him.

"...My name is Navlaan...And my companions and I were captured by one of their patrol groups." Navlaan looked around, before looking back at the man, "I would love to tell you more, but don't you think we should get off the roof of this thing?"

The man seemed to think for a moment, before looking towards the front of the train.

"No,notyetweneedtokeepthisareasecuredsomystudentsmayapprehendthepeoplecontrollingthisandstopthemfromlettinggrimmintothecity. Inordertodothis,Imustremain-"

"Hold on there." His was spinning trying to understand, "Say that again. Slowly."

"Notime,weareapproachingthewallofvaleatanincreadiblespeedandIhaveajobtodo!"

With that the green haired man was gone, leaving a confused and slightly irritated old man, a small dog, and the red girl in the dust. Coughing, he looked down at the dog and sighed deeply.

"This is going to be a reoccurring thing, isn't it?"

He swore the dog nodded its head.

***Line Break***

POV shift: Latune

***Line Break***

"WHY. WON'T. YOU. STAY. STILL!"

"Don't waste your breath, Yellow. She's mocking you."

The red white and brown colored woman only smirked at the duo as she dodged every blow that came her way. There was nothing she didn't see coming. No matter how fast, nor how sneaky an attack was, it only met with thin air.

"I KNOW THAT!"

Latune gritted her teeth, irritated that the girl couldn't see that just attacking wasn't going to work.

"Then focus on the fight! Talking with an enemy is worthless, especially one such as this."

"Speak for yourself, you haven't gotten remotely close to hitting her! At least I'm trying!"

Latune let out an angry grunt. At this point, they were going to end up fighting each other, while the multicolored girl was merely smirking to herself. Taking advantage, Latune reached into the bag at her belt, swiftly pulling and throwing a small knife towards the child sized woman. It sailed through the air and stuck true, right into the woman's bosom.

Before she shattered once again, appearing several feet away, and the smirk only growing wider.

"Damn it." She glared back at Yang, "We need a plan, or this will go nowhere." She looked once more toward Neo, who had a bored look on her face.

"We can't beat her. She sees everything, and half the time we're fighting an illusion."

Latune continued to stare at the woman, before she directed her voice to Yang. "We can't beat her."

"Yeah, I just said that."

"No, I mean we can't _beat_ her." She lowered her voice, "But we can keep her away from the others."

Latune started forward, weapons in hand and a tense, but calm, posture. Lifting her pistol, she fired straight at Neo, then dodged and sliced backwards. She hit nothing, but she did avoid a hit from a parasol. Looking straight at Latune, Neo's smirk seemed to grow into a delirious smile. Her eyes changed from pink and brown to white and pink, and she approached Latune with clear intent to continue the fight.

Until she shattered once again as several shotgun pellets meet the illusion's face.

Neo reappeared several feet behind Yang, a small frown on her face. Latune lifted her pistol to shoot the woman again, but was too late on the trigger. The woman's foot met Yang's back with vigor, forcing Yang to the wall opposite her. Without missing a beat, she turned from the bullet and continued forward.

Latune rushed to meet her, but Neo's form shattered before she had even taken a strike. Neo reappeaered next to Yang, who had just lifted herself from the floor. With the flick of a wrist, her parasol was slammed painfully into Yang's stomach, then twisted around to meet the back of her head.

Latune moved to help, before Neo shattered once again. A gasp from behind made her turn, and she saw the doll being held at sword point by Neo. She was once again smirking, and motioned for Latune to lower her weapons. After a few moments of thought, Latune lowered her guard.

Glaring with intensity, she began to speak. "Resorting to threats? Your either at your limit, or you want to end this." She looked toward the Doll and seemed to evaluate her. "Either way, you'll have no control over me." She lifted her weapons and continued forward.

***Line Break***

POV shift: Navlaan

***Line Break***

Navlaan slowly moved his way toward the front of the train, the speed of the train increasing steadily. Nearing the next linked car, he looked towards the girl, Ruby, who was anxiously waiting for him to catch up. With a look full over nervousness, Ruby spoke.

"Look, sir, I know that you're a good guy and all and we're trying to stop the train, but you're kinda really slow and I really need to go help Professor- I mean Doctor Oobleck so I'm just gonna go on ahead alright bye!"

Suddenly the girl was gone, replaced by falling rose petals. Navlaan grunted, both in acknowledgement and because of the strain. Half a minute after the girl had left, he finally made it to edge of the car. Navlaan began to mutter to himself.

"I'll be dead before i reach the end...There must be a faster way..."

He looked down at the coupling holding the cars together, before he sighed in relief. Grabbing the ladder next to the car, he slowly descended to the floor of the car. The wind having died down considerably, he was finally making progress. Re balancing himself on the floor of the car, he started jogging quickly towards the front of the train, knowing time was of the essence.

***Line Break***

POV Shift: Latune

***Line Break***

The screaming in her head started about a few seconds before she made her weight of the decision she had just made would probably come back to bite her later _if it worked_. There was no telling what would happen if she failed. Navlaan would probably gut her like a pig.

 _'If he can catch me, that is.'_

That was a valid point. She had no emotional attachment to these people. Navlaan was an Executioner for gods sake! His order had destroyed her people. There was no bringing them back. He was part of a group of murderers, and as far as she was concerned they could all go die.

Her Queen's voice seemed to enter her mind, resounding, peaceful, and demanding to be listen to.

 _'It is time for thine final challenge. Remain strong, as thou always has, and thee will go far.'_

Maybe she didn't care for these people, and her actions may be scorned. But by the gods that ruled this cruel plane of existence, She would honor her Queen till the last drop of blood left her body.

Latune focused in on Neo's eyes. They held mirth, as if this were a game, while her sword slowly approached the Dolls chest.

Too bad it would never reach its target.

Neo jumped in surprise her eyes filled with confusion as they darted downward. There they were met with small grey ones, the things head adorned with a familiar top hat, biting down on her leg. Neo's eyes went white as they widened.

' _Check'_

As fast as she could, Latune darted forward, her sword swinging with her in unison. She meet Neo's eyes as they moved back upwards, her sword grazing the woman's cheek as she tried to get away. Latune looked on with contempt.

"So you can be hit."

If possible, the woman's eyes might have left their sockets. She slowly lifted a hand to her cheek, and brought it to her vision. Blood, a very small amount, had begun to drip down her face, and her gloved hand were smudged with it. Her eyes twitched.

There was a second of silence, before the woman shattered once again.

Latune stood, her gaze moving from Neo's last position to the Doll. She was on her knees, Chester on her shoulder, as she seemed to pray.

Latune went to reach for her, when she felt something...wrong, and something sounded to her left. She tensed and turned quickly, expecting Neo at any moment. What she saw instead was a woman, dressed entirely in red and black armor, a strange mask looking like a grimm covering her face, and kneeling next to a fallen Yang.

Latune moved to defend the girl, before the woman stood, and turned toward her. Latune froze, unable to move as this woman gazed at her, seeming to have more eyes than any human should.

The woman kept her stare on her, before turning. In the blink of an eye, there appeared a sword in the woman's hand, and a strange red, bloody portal appeared in front of her. The woman returned the sword to its sheath, and walk into the newly made rip in the air. She disappeared, the portal vanished, and silence pervaded the car.

Latune moved towards Yang, finding her unconscious, and sighed. Turning her head, she spoke out.

"Doll, are you alrigh-"

She looked terrified.

She felt the car shake and violently stop. Flying forward, she hit the train car wall, and blacked out.

***Line Break***

POV Shift: Navlaan

***Line Break***

 _'Dear god,_

 _why me?'_

He had gone two cars with no one in them. However upon reaching the third car, he was met with quite the surprise. He entered the room to find Kalrin, Persephone, Eris, and Lyra all fighting the Lieutenant. Or rather they were defending against him.

The orange eyed man, Tarec, lay near him. His breathing was calm, and his eyes were closed. He could have been mistaken for being asleep if it weren't for the large bruise forming near his temple. His pistols were nowhere in sight.

" _MOVE, NOW!"_

Navlaan had just enough time to turn around before he was barreled into by a large man in white holding a chainsaw. Immediately after, he was on his knees, agonizing pain blasting through his back.

' _What did I do to deserve so much back pain?_ '

He looked up to see the Lieutenant standing over him, his strange cleaver held threateningly over his head. He tried to move, but the pain in his back stopped him from doing anything. He watched as the clever descended, he gave a shaky chuckle, and closed his eyes.

The sound of something with intense force hitting a person met his ears. He opened his eyes to see Eris in front of him, her halberd held up as if she had uppercut someone. Straining to turn his head, he could see the Lieutenant against the wall, shaking off the hot from Eris. Looking back, Navlaan found her hand sitting in front of his face.

As he reached for it, the pain in his back intensified once more. Hissing softly, he reached into his cloak and removed a vial of blood. He quickly jabbed it into his side and pressed down on the pump. Immediately he felt relief, and he reached again for Eris's hand. She had a confused look on her face, but he waved it off and reached down for his fallen weapons.

"Where is Doll?"

Eris continued to look at him strangely, before answering. "We left her with Latune, back a few cars down."

Navlaan nodded and readied himself.

Once again armed, he turned to the Lieutenant once more to find him fighting with Kalrin and Persephone. Approaching cautiously, Navlaan replaced his blunderbuss for his hammer. He watched for an opening, on guard and waiting for the large man to make a mistake.

He got his opening thirty seconds later when the masked man tipped Persephone off balance. As he moved in for the kill, Navlaan moved in himself and, holding his hammer slightly behind himself, he lifted it upward and slammed it back down on the Lieutenant. He moved quickly to attack again, and, swinging from the side, caught the Lieutenant in the ribs. Spinning with the over sized weapon, he twirled around and meant to hit the man again.

His weapon was met with the guard of the mans weapon. Navlaan lifted off the guard and swung again, from below. As Navlaan hit the man again, he felt a sharp pain in his leg. Glancing down, he found the Lieutenant's beginning to tear into his calf. As a small amount of blood splattered to the floor, he backed off and moved his hammer to his back, pulling out his sword. Grabbing his gun, he moved again towards the Lieutenant. As he moved, Kalrin moved with him, and they arrived on either side of the large man.

"Hehehe, you think you can stop me?" The Lieutenant chuckled darkly, "You're too late."

With that, the man slammed on the ground with his foot. A shock wave once again appeared, knocking Navlaan to the ground. However, Kalrin understood what would happen again, and stabbed her spear into the floor. After the wave passed, she pulled it out and lept towards the Lieutenant. As she approached, her spear seemed to glow red before it lit on fire. She hit the ground at his feet and stabbed forward as he swung downward towards her head.

As they hit, a small fiery explosion appeared at the point of Kalrin's spear, causing both the Lieutenant and Kalrin to fly backwards from each other. Both hit the walls back first, before sliding to the floor, unconscious.

As Navlaan stood, a hatch in the ceiling opened to reveal the face and hair of Doctor seemed surprised to see Navlaan, but he continued anyway. He jumped down and landed next to Navlaan. After helping him up, the green haired man spoke.

"Quickly,wemustgeteveryoneheretoholdontosomething!"

Navlaan spoke, confused. "Whats going on?"

A white haired girl jumped down, followed by Ruby, a girl in black, and the small dog. The white haired girl's voice contained urgency. "There are no breaks on the train, we're gonna crash!"

Ruby had run around, gathering everyone in the car near each other, including the unconscious White Fang Lieutenant.

The sound of smashing metal met his ears, before Oobleck shouted something and Navlaan fell to the floor.

The car crashed.

He curled in on himself as he flew forward, hitting the wall and falling to the floor. His ears were ringing, and he felt like retching. As he stood, the ringing subsided and he heard the howl of a wolf. Looking around, he saw everyone in various states of disarray. The walls of the car were very damaged, and as he looked around he saw that sunlight was coming in from the hatch above him and holes in the walls.

The howling had become louder, and other animalistic sounds could be heard as well. The residents of Remnant currently not unconscious looked up simultaneously in horror, the dog began barking, and Navlaan remembered something very important.

"The Doll..." He croaked, before going into a coughing fit. As it subsided, he looked down at his hand to find blood had splattered onto his palm. "Where is she? How far back!?"

Ruby suddenly perked up. "Yang! Weiss, where did Yang go!?"

The girl in white gave a small cough, before answering "We left her about four cars back with that girl that was with Torchwick."

Eris spoke up. "We left Latune and the Doll with them too, they were fighting Torchwick's little minion, Neo."

Navlaan moved to get down to the other cars, when he erupted in another fit of coughing. More blood filled his palm, and a sharp, intense pain in his chest.

A large shard of metal had dug its way into his chest. Sighing, he began to pull it out with one hand. He winced as the object pulled chunks of skin and flesh with it. Blood began to pour and his coughing became more intense, but he continued to pull. He could here the murmur of the others as he continued to pull, uncaring as to what they were talking about. Finally, he got to the end of the shard. But as he went to pull it out, it caught on something and his one hand couldn't get it to budge.

His coughing starting to become more like gasping, he gripped the shard in both hands and tugged, hard. With the all too familiar sound of tearing flesh, he ripped it from his chest. Tossing it away, he reached into his cloak and brought out another vial of blood. Gripping it with both hands, he shoved it the left side of his chest and pushed down the pump. Seconds later, he could feel his chest beginning to stitch back together.

Resisting the urge to both retch and scratch at the area, he instead coughed once more and began moving again, leaving the room to find his friend, leaving a group of variously confused and shocked individuals.

***Line Break***

 **Alright, that was that. I want the story to have more gore, since its a bloodborne fic. It just makes sense.**

 **Anyway, that took a long time to write, but I got through it. I won't promise anything, but now I feel I have more direction. So that's that.  
**

 **I wrote a little omake that may or may not like as well, so here you go.**

POV Shift: Eris.

OMAKE#1

She ran to stop the Lieutenant as his chainsaw descended. Her heart was pumping with vigor as she watched it inch closer and closer to Navlaan's neck. The old man looked up in fear at at the man, before a nervous chuckle escaped his mouth and he closed his eyes.

She moved to smash the man away, her aim perfect as her halberd approached him, but as she started to get close enough, the Lieutenant turned to her and gripped her throat. She gasped, her grip on her weapon going slack and she dropped it. He picked her up and slammed her into the wall. His chuckle was heard only by her as he let her go and returned to his prize. Gripping with both hands, he lifted the chainsaw and brought it down onto Navlaan's neck.

Blood splattered, there was a scream, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

 **Hope you guys still like this fic, and don't be shy to tell me if something doesn't make sense or is wrong. I appreciate the criticism. I'd also like to thank my boyfriend for editing some parts of this for me.** **Hope you all have a wonderful day.**

 **ALSO, if you could check out my boyfriends art blog on tumblr, we would both really appreciate it. The blog is about his ascension to greatness. His arts actually pretty good, so give him a look up.**

 **starbound - artist .tumblr .com**

 **Sincerely**

 **The Man with a Top Hat.**


	14. The Monsters of Men

**Hello Lads and Lasses**

 **On with the show.**

***Line Break***

The Monsters of Men

Unique POV: Ruby

***Line Break***

'S _o much blood..._ _Where was his aura? Did he run out? That crash could have run it dry...but if so, what was the stuff in that bottle?...'_

These were just some of the thoughts running through Ruby's mind as she watch the older man walk out of the severely damaged train car. Her train of thought was interrupted when Doctor Oobleck began speaking. The howls of grimm had only gotten louder.

"Alrightmystudents,weneedtogetoutthereandholdoffthosegrimmuntilmorehuntersandhuntressesarrive!"

"But what about Yang!" She couldn't just leave her sister behind, "She could be hurt! I can run after that Navlaan guy, get Yang, and bring her back in just a few seconds!" She moved to to run back down the train, but was stopped by a hand grabbing her cape. Nearly flopping to the ground, she turned back to find Weiss staring at her, an exasperated look in her eye.

"Think Ruby! That man clearly has his own agenda, but he'll be finding the two people who know where Yang is! He seemed respectable enough to not leave a person behind," Weiss pointed toward the door, "And besides, we need to help the people out there."

"But...but...what if..."

Weiss sighed, her voice taking on a softer tone. "You want to help your sister. I get it, and we want to help her too. But right now the innocent people out there need our help, and that mean we need to do our job."

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Blake stepped in, "Yang is tough. She can handle herself, and going back down there will only make things more complicated in the city."

"They won't leave her."

Surprised, the three girls and their teacher turned to find a woman with short purple hair looking at them.

"Those otherworlder's aren't bad people. They won't leave your sister behind."

Weiss and Blake turned back to their leader with expectant looks. Ruby held their combined gazes for a few seconds, before looking down and nodding. "I guess you guys are right. As always." She lifted her head and gave a smile.

Weiss scoffed, "No ones always right. Now come on, we've got people to save."

***Line Break***

POV Shift: Navlaan

***Line Break***

' _One car down.'_

The car he entered hadn't completely made it through the wall of the city. Its split walls let some of the fading sunlight in, but as he went in further the holes only held blackness. He continued forward.

' _Two cars down._ '

It was much darker here, lit only by a flickering light in the ceiling and light from the previous car. He pulled out his sword, and held it in both hands, his nerves beginning to get to him. A bomb held a spot in the middle of the room, dented from the crash but it obviously hadn't gone off. The sounds of animals running met his ears. He kept his distance from both the walls and bomb, and kept moving.

"Three cars down..."

The lights of this car were completely out. The sounds seemed even louder, and something could be heard scuttling about in the darkness. He raised his sword and continued, making as little noise as possible and listening closely. A light could be seen at the far end of the car, but it lit only a few feet in front of the door he was approaching.

The scuttling had quieted, but the sound of feet hitting the floor, softly, met his ears. He turned, listening for the pattering that might lead to an attack. The yelling of people had died down the farther in he went in, but the snarling and scratching remained. As he neared the last door, a shadow crossed the doorway before disappearing. Navlaan, already on edge, focused in on the door and began to move more quickly. The thought of Doll being hurt pushed him forward.

Upon entering the car, his eyes were met with something unexpected. The Doll was kneeling over a girl with yellow hair who was propping herself up against a wall, her eyes a the color of lilac and her brown clothes showing enough skin to be considered scandalous by Yharnam standards. The Doll held both her hands to one of the girls own, and was whispering softly to her.

The pattering started once again, to his right, and he turned just as the yellow haired girl's eyes met his own. Look at the direction of the noise, he saw Chester pacing near the door, his hat i his hands, and an unconscious Latune. She had several cuts along her face, but any damage done to her body was hidden by her thin armor. Her sword was laid on its side a few feet away, while her pistol nowhere to be seen.

As he knelt by her, he removed a blood vial from his belt and jabbed it into her side. The second he pressed the plunger down, Latune's eyes began to flutter, and she began coughing. He nodded in approval, and began to stand. Reaching down, he looked into her unfocused eyes and gripped her arm. Gently he pulled her to her feet, steadying her as she tried to balance.

When she was fully stood, he grabbed both her shoulders and stared into her eyes.

"Are you alright?" His question seemed to confuse her, as her brows furrowed, and the split moment he saw her eyes, they were unclear and unfocused. After a moment, her eyes panned downward and widened slightly. She would return his stare.

"I'm fine. Check the doll." She pushed away his hands and walked unsteadily closer to the Doll and the yellow haired girl as Chester arrived next to them.

"Navlaan?"

Turning directly to her, he saw the Doll was staring at him, her soft eyes seeming to pierce his as she spoke.

"Doll." He moved forward, past Latune and directly next to her. He grabbed her hand and held it in both of his, "Are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?"

She seemed to smile at his behavior, but it was small and refused to meet her eyes.

"I-" A small cough came from the yellow haired girl, and a dim yellow light breifly enveloped the girl before disappearing. Three pairs of eyes now on her, "I think my aura's back now."

A grin appeared on her face "I guess now we can shed some _light_ on the situation." She laughed, before being replaced by a groan and a wince. "Bad idea...bad idea..."

Navlaan turned to The Doll, a blank look on his face.

"Her aura broke when she was fighting that Neo woman, and when the train crashed she was unconscious. She has several bruises, and a few bones were fractured." She explained.

Chester reached over from his position on the floor and patted her arm in comfort, though it seemed to make her more uncomfortable. She gently patted his head and he moved back, seeming pleased as he placed his hat back on his head. She turned back to the Doll and Navlaan.

"I'll be good now, and my aura can _brighten_ the mood!"

"Stop, just stop." Navlaan began to stand. "We need to see about getting out of here. What's your name?"

"Yang, Yang Xiao Long."

"Well Yang, I'm going to need you to get up." He pointed toward the door he had come from, "That's our way out, but I don't think it will be as easy to get back as it was to get here. Think you can fight?"

She smirked, before pumping back one of her elbows. A red and gold shell popped out of her gauntlet, "I think I'll be just fine."

Navlaan nodded, but as he went to move away, the Doll quickly grabbed his cape. He looked back, and saw an expression he never wanted to see on her face again.

Fear.

"Something the matter Doll?"

Her eyes had widened, having traveled to his chest, before moving back to his eyes.

"Dear hunter, what has happened to your garb?"

He looked down, only now realizing just how much damage the chunk of metal had done to his outfit. A large tear had left part of his right shoulder and chest exposed. Blood had been smeared onto his skin, and the cloth was only beginning to dry from the blood that had dribbled down and stained it.

He gulped as the Doll continued to stare. "I'm fine, nothing a little cleaning and sewing can't fix."

"We both know that is not what I meant."

"It was a simple flesh wound, easily fixed with a vial. Nothing to worry about."

Another expression formed on her face, one of anger. He wasn't sure which one he liked less. But as she moved her mouth, a certain brunette clumsily but quickly moved away from the group.

The Doll once again met his eyes. "We will speak of this later."

He nodded silently, as Yang could be heard quietly snickering.

Latune looked to still be out of sorts, but the blood was doing its job. Her eyes were clear of haze, more focused, and her stance was balanced. She was moving around debris, becoming more and more frantic before finally she looked towards their confused group, "Has anyone seen my Evelyn?"

"Your what?"

She looked toward Navlaan, her tone filled with worry. "My pistol, the Evelyn. I had it when I was fighting, but it's missing!"

Navlaan approached and attempted to put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm yourself Latune, we'll look around for it. But we are not safe here, we need to move."

She gripped his wrist and shoved it away. Moving back, she continued to frantically search for the object. "You don't get it, I can't just leave it here! I'd rather throw myself at bloodsuckers before I even think of leaving it anywhere but my hip."

Navlaan turned back to the rest of the group, sighing as he lifted his hand to his head.

"Chester?" The small creature looked toward him as he lifted his head. "Please help Latune find her pistol, we must get back to the others soon."

Chester nodded, before once again removing his hat. Placing it on the ground, hole to the ceiling, he reached far into it and pulled out a hand lantern. Lifting the hat back to his head, he flicked a switch and hauled the bright light over to Latune.

"So...are we going to acknowledge the fact that that lantern was way to big to be sitting in that hat?"

Navlaan turned to Yang, the confused look on her face bringing a bit of humor to the situation at hand.

"Where we come from, things like that are mere parlor tricks to our other advancements."

The dumbfounded stare she gave him only served to make him chuckle.

"You mean you guys have other stuff like that?!"

In response, Navlaan pulled his satchel from his waist and opened it wide. He pushed his hand further and further into the bag until it was nearly up to his shoulder, then pulled back out, a large axe gripped in his hand.

"We have to carry many essentials when on a hunt, and so we found a way to carry more without making the load impossible. You should have seen all the things I had in my coffin back home!"

"Why would you use a coffin?"

"Because they were easy to come by."

By her look, his answers were only causing more questions. "Look, don't worry about it kid. We can explain it to you later if you want, but right now we need to go."

He placed a hand on his sword's pommel and turned towards Latune, who had just moved to the back of the car. "Did you find it?"

Her annoyed tone met his ears. "What do you think?'

"I think it's time we moved on, before the Grimm decide we are better prey than Vale."

"And I think that you should be quiet so that I can keep looking."

"Look, I know this means something to you-"

"It means quite a lot to me, actually."

"But if we don't leave now we may not leave at all, and I say that your gun isn't worth your life."

"You're right, it's worth much more than that."

He frowned. "Latune, we need to leave. I'm sorry, but this isn't a debate."

"You think I care? I'm not going to listen to every word you say, old man."

He felt something stir in his mind, anger making its way into his words as he moved closer to Latune.

"Listen here. This isn't just about you, girl. This is about making it out of here alive. Now, I don't know why this gods forsaken pistol-"

" **Shut. up.** "

All noise seemed to stop with the ensuing silence that followed the short but powerful statement. The absolute loathing in the statement made him shudder. Her eyes moved to his, so full of hatred he had to look away. He had never seen a look like that directed solely at him and him alone.

"You couldn't _possibly_ know what that 'Gods forsaken pistol' means to me! You don't even care! Don't act like you care about my 'well being'. "

His shock over her outburst wore off, and anger filled him. "And how could you expect us to? As far as I've seen, you've been acting like an ignorant brat ever since we were captured! You've not attempted to say anything of use, and you've going off of your own plans without telling anyone the slightest of details!"

"At least _I_ don't blindly follow a group of religious zealots with their noses so far up their leaders ass they may as well not even have free will! And _I_ don't go around slaughtering innocent men, women, and children who didn't even know they've done something wrong to begin with, expecting them to understand the flawed rules of a religion they've never been apart of, and then having the audacity to claim that it's for a righteous fucking cause!"

She stopped, breathing heavily, before she spoke in a cold, calm voice.

"At least I'm not a monster."

He stood, dumbfounded, unable to fully comprehend the words she had just spat into his face. Seconds turned into hours, and it felt like a lifetime before he was able to say anything.

"I...I see."

She scoffed, turning away to begin her search again, as she hammered the final nail into the coffin.

"I doubt it."

***Line Break***

Unique POV shift: Glynda Goodwitch

***Line Break***

' _For once, can something happen that doesn't involve Team RWBY? Everywhere they go something gets destroyed, and criminals get scattered like cockroaches. I swear to dust those girls can cause more trouble than the criminals themselves._ '

Glynda watched from the inside of a bullhead as several teams of students, from all kingdoms, worked to put a stop to the breach in Vale's wall, with Ruby, Weiss, and Blake from team RWBY in the midst of the action. While their blonde haired brawler was no where to be seen, the group still fared well enough without her. Still, Miss Rose was much too flashy, Miss Schnee was far to reserved in her fighting, and Miss Belledona could use a few more lessons on the control of dust with her semblance. They were aided by a group of faunus that she didn't recognize, and Doctor Oobleck who seemed to be everywhere at once.

She switched her gaze towards Team CRDL, who were assisted by a team she didn't quite recognize as they fought to cut off any further advancement into the city. CRDL held promise in the ways of combat, there was no doubting that. But the way they seemed to argue with the other team showed that they still had much to learn.

With a sigh, she realized that she was critiquing in the midst of battle, and she stepped from the bullhead and fell several meters before landing safely on her feet. With no end of the grimm in sight, it seemed that she would need to close the breach itself, before more damage than necessary was caused. She marched calmly but quickly towards an open area in sight of the breach, so that she could easily seal it with the rubble that surrounded the place.

She was approached by several creeps, two legged grimm with stunted heads and short but powerful tails. And just like any grimm, they are deadly and not to be trifled with. She waved her riding crop in their direction, sending several shards of dust towards them with precision accuracy, killing each with a shard through the head. There was no time to waste. Closing her eyes, she breathed in.

And began her work.

***Line Break***

POV: Latune

***Line Break***

It was hopeless. It was nowhere to be found, as she had searched everywhere. Her most prized possession gone just like that. With sorrow she dejectedly made her way back towards the group.

Ignoring their stares, she moved past them and made her way through the door. Chester had wisely moved himself off her shoulder, but not before he had clipped the lantern to her belt. She could see easily, and she knew the others followed from the sounds of their footsteps.

She allowed herself to feel guilty for what she had said. It wasn't the time or place for such an outburst, and she knew it had clearly shaken up Navlaan. He wasn't fully to blame, but he was part of the problem. Even if he hadn't killed any innocents, he supported a fanatical group that did.

' _He needs to wake up and realize that the Cainhurst aren't the only ones who had_ flaws. _'_

Still, the guilt lingered.

"We need to move quickly. We don't know how much more tome we have until they get the breach closed."

' _He speaks! I wonder if that amount of silence was a record for him?'_

Outwardly, she instead kept her voice level, and the question civil.

"How much further?

"It's three cars down."

"Then lets pick up the pace."

***Line Break***

Unique POV shift: Glynda Goodwitch

***Line Break***

"Glynda,wait!"

Her concentration didn't waver, but she moved her focus to the green haired man in an explorers outfit in front of her while she held the reforming ruble in place.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Therearestillseverapeoplestillinthetunnel,includingMissXiaoLong. Wemustwaitforthierreturnbeforeclosingthebreach!"

She inwardly sighed. There always seem to be complications with these types of things.

"Well, get them out of there, and as soon as you do, get back to me so that I can close this." She frowned. "Now, Doctor!"

He flinched slightly, before saluting. "RightawayProfessor!" And with that, he ran off.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, and went back to putting the walls pieces back in order.

***Line Break***

POV: Latune

***Line Break***

Nothing in her life ever goes smoothly. Which was why she was currently fighting with several beastlike monsters in a crowded space with little light and pressure to keep moving forward or they'll all die.

Actually, that sounds pretty average all around.

She ducked downwards and slashed at the bipedal monsters legs, before standing and shoving her sword directly into its throat, ending the beast. Looking forwards, she found that she could see fading sunlight in the car ahead.

"I can see the surface, everyone move!"

No one argued, and Yang's shotgun blasts halted as they surged toward the light. Finally in the last car, she looked up to find one of the girls from earlier, Blake, holding out her hand to pull her up. Instead, Latune turned and pulled the Doll forward. Grabbing her waist, Latune lifted as Blake wrapped her hands around the Doll and pulled up. Letting go, she moved under the Doll, placed her hands on the soles of her shoes, and pushed her the rest of the way up.

"Yang, you next!" She heard Navlaan call. A second later, Yang was next to her looking slightly worse for wear. Looking up, she found a man with green hair holding his arms out. Yang reached up, and before Latune could even try to help the girl was up and out.

She turned to the man holding off the doorway into the car. "Navlaan, Come on!"

He only gave a slight nod that he had heard her, and he began to pull back. Looking up, she found Eris holding her hand out for her. Grabbing on, she used the woman and the wall to pull herself to the surface, finally standing on the edge of the train car and looking back down at Navlaan. She found Eris and Kalrin grabbing one of each of his hands and pulling him up.

Once he had made it to the top, the man with green hair began to yell.

"Quickly,weneedtogetoutofthistunnelnow! Everyone,throughthebreach!"

Running across the train cars, the entrance to the tunnel was only a few meters away from them. Navlaan had sheathed his weapons, and had picked up the Doll to run her through. Sheathing her own blade, they began to sprint towards the breach. With a final push, except the green haired man who was long gone at that point, they made it through the wall an into the city.

The second they crossed the threshold, large sections of stone began to descend onto the hole as if by magic, blocking it seamlessly and stopping any further grimm from getting into the city. With one final ' _wumph'_ the wall was fixed, as if it hadn't been broken in the first place.

A sigh left her lips has she slumped to the ground. Physically and emotionally drained, she looked wearily towards the Doll and Navlaan, who stood next to her. He was looking between the faunus that had helped us escape, the Doll, and her. He let out a long breath, looking far older than normal, and chuckled.

"Is that it?"

"FREEZE, you are under arrest!"

She slumped forward and moaned.

"Gods damn it."

***Line Break***

 **So...hows everyone been? Heh heh heh.**

 **Alright, so I have no excuse. I'll freely admit that I put off the ending to this chapter for a good few months. I've been trying to write this chapter since April/May and I just finished it last night.**

I won't promise any schedule, cause I seem to not be able to follow them. And I know that this break has been the absolute scummiest thing I've done for this story so far.

 **All I can say is that I will try.**

 **Lads and Lasses, safe reading to you all. See you next time.**


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